Two Suns and a Moon
by weezerz2490
Summary: The Sun gives the Moon light, and the Moon lights the night when the Sun goes dark. Sanzo is Goku's sun. Goku is Sanzo's sun. But sometimes even suns need someone to light the darkness for them. They can need a moon just as much as the moon needs them. And Myoko, Sanzo's childhood friend, is that moon.
1. Go West

Author's note: Came up with the idea for this a while back. Hope you like it!

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Go West**

* * *

 _Two figures stood before a smaller one, separated by the bars of rock closing the mountainside prison off from the rest of the world. The two figures on the outside were male and female. The male had bright, golden hair and violet eyes, while the female had white hair and pink eyes. The two teenagers were the first people the boy sealed within the prison could ever remember seeing. He stared up at them in awe._

 _"... Hey, you're the one who's been calling us, right?" the girl with white hair asked with a kind smile and a soft voice._

 _"... What?" the boy in the prison said, confused, as he stared up at them with big golden eyes, afraid to blink in case they disappeared. "I... didn't call for anyone. Who are you?"_

 _"Don't lie," the young man with blonde hair said sternly with a surly frown as his brow creased in annoyance. "I've heard you calling me for awhile. It's really annoying, so quit it."_

 _"Sanzo..." the girl whispered, lifting her head to hold his gaze. The boy didn't seem to be aware of what he was doing, so there was little point in taking it out on him, but she knew her friend understood this already, so she left it at that. The young man clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked away from her._

 _"Instead..." he continued, nonplussed, "we'll take you with us." He held his hand out to the boy between the bars. "Since I don't see any other choice."_

 _The girl smiled and offered the boy her hand as well. "You look like you've been in there long enough," she added gently._

 _The boy stared up at them, stunned. The frowning young man with gold hair shined like the sun, while the smiling girl with white hair was soft and gentle like the moon. He reached out to take their hands, and the chains around his wrists disintegrated._

 _—∞—_

In a nebulous era when the Heavens and Earth intermingled, there was a peaceful land where man and demon coexisted, the origin of civilization and faith, Shangri-La. However, at that very moment, there was a negative aura sweeping the world and the youkai had begun to go berserk. In India, far to the west of Shangri-La, there was one who commanded those youkai. But right here in China, in the heart of Shangri-La, there were those already taking steps to counter this.

—∞—

A young monk with bright golden blonde hair and violet eyes, wearing loose white robes over a thin, tight-fitting sleeveless mock-turtleneck, with black fingerless gloves, and a green-bordered scroll covered in Sanskrit draped over his shoulders, stood leaning back against the outer wall of the Keiun Temple in Chang'an with a cigarette in his hand. Genjo Sanzo was very irritated, and he had felt the need to stop for a smoke on his way back before passing through the temple's gates. He looked up as a young woman with white hair dressed in the spice-colored robes of a buddhist nun approached him.

"Myoko. How was it?" he asked her, taking another drag on his cigarette.

"Just as we feared," she replied seriously with a sad sigh, peering out at him with her pink eyes from under the shade of her red umbrella. "This place is going to hell in a fast cart. All the villages and towns I passed through were the same. Things are still relatively peaceful if you travel far enough into the east, but it's only a matter of time... Has something happened here?" she asked after pausing a moment to note that he was in full ceremonial dress (headdress included) and observe his current mood. "You have two extra stress creases in your forehead, right here," she added, pointing to the space between her own eyebrows. She was a little amused by the thought that, for all the fancy trappings of his position, he looked more like a gangster than a monk at the moment.

His scowl deepened. "We've been given a mission. The Three Aspects, the Sanbutsushin, want us to do something about all this chaos, so you can bet it'll be a real pain in the ass."

 _Oh, goody._ "Yeah, I bet..." she agreed dryly with a crooked smile. She could already hazard a guess as to what it might entail based on his expression and level of irritation. "Who else is coming?"

"The usual suspects," he replied, stamping out his cigarette. "I've already made arrangements to meet up with Gojyo and Hakkai. Now that you're here, all we need to do is grab Goku and go."

"Those fruits are not meant for lowly beings such as yourself!" a familiar voice cried from the other side of the wall, causing the two humans to glance questioningly up in the direction of its source.

"Aw, shuddup!" Goku called back, causing Myoko to sweat-drop as a vein throbbed on Sanzo's head.

"That damn monkey..." he grumbled, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist as he stomped toward the gate to beat some sense into him for whatever the cause of this latest headache was.

 _Better brace yourself, Goku!_ Myoko thought with a nervous laugh as she followed the angry monk into the temple proper. The motto for their 'household' seemed to be 'talk shit, get hit.' And unfortunately their little monkey could be a slow learner.

"What's it matter?" Goku asked, still arguing with the other monks. "There's a lot here. What's one or two?"

"!" the older monks gasped and stepped out of the way when he spit a peach pit down at them. Their eyes widened in surprise when the turn to follow the unusual projectile with their eyes brought the arrival of the troublemaker's guardians to their attention.

 _Goku..._ Myoko thought wryly as she and Sanzo reached them at that moment, finding the others gathered around the massive peach tree in the courtyard. If he was really looking to cause trouble, then his aim could use some work.

"What's all this commotion about?" Sanzo asked, managing to sound calmer than he felt. The frazzled monks looked ridiculously relieved to see him.

"Sanzo-sama, please do something about this," the bravest (or perhaps the most exasperated) man said first. "Your companion is..."

"He is eating the peaches that are offerings to the Merciful Goddess, Kanzeon Bosatsu!" the monk next to him concluded impatiently. For a Buddhist temple, there didn't seem to be much zen around.

"But they're just like any other peaches," Goku said, still not seeing the problem. It's not like this goddess ever came down to get them. He had watched them go uneaten and fall and rot on the ground often enough to know that much.

Sanzo grabbed the first monk by the front of his robes and glared at him. "My companion?!" he said incredulously. "It's not like I have a choice!"

"B... But..." the older man stuttered nervously.

"Hey, Goku!" Myoko called up, giving their favorite ward a friendly smile and a little wave.

"Ah! Myoko-nee is back!" Goku exclaimed happily when he noticed the white-haired nun, immediately jumping down to greet her.

"That's right!" Myoko said brightly, noticing that he had grown a whole inch taller than her in the short time she was gone. "And if you want to avoid capture next time, it's better to quietly steal one or two to take back to your room to eat in secret instead of sitting in the tree where everyone can see you..." She suddenly felt a familiar pressure on her skull.

"Oi," Sanzo said gruffly, pushing down on the top of her head with his hand. "You better not be speaking from experience. Just what kind of shady advice have you been giving him? Don't tell me you're to blame for this...?"

"It was a joke, a joke," she said casually with a laugh, trying to wave it off. Even though she knew it was dangerous, she just couldn't resist teasing him sometimes, especially when they hadn't seen each other in a while.

"It doesn't sound like a joke when you say it," he retorted sternly, still gripping her head. Goku was enough trouble already. The last thing he needed was her putting those kinds of ideas into his soft monkey brain.

Myoko's smile became a little tense as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of her face. He looked genuinely angry with her this time. "... I'm against domestic violence..."

"Did you bring me a souvenir?" Goku asked abruptly, sniffing the air around his favorite nun, too distracted to notice or care about the trouble she had just gotten herself into. "Something smells good!"

"When don't I bring you something?" she retorted, pulling out a bag of homemade almond cookies. "Here you go, some villagers gave these to me for helping them."

"Yay!" Goku cheered, but Sanzo quickly snatched the cookies away before he could grab them.

"Don't reward him for bad behavior!" Sanzo scolded her through gritted teeth. "It's because you're always spoiling him like this that he... Ah! Whatever!" he sighed with frustration. "If you're done eating, let's go!"

"Go where?" Goku asked.

Sanzo turned on his heel and started walking away without answering. Myoko smiled wryly as she followed and nodded her head at Goku to indicate they should do the same before they got left behind.

Goku grinned and hurried to catch up to them. If all three of them were going out together, then it had to be something good. "Hey, hey, where are you taking me? A restaurant?" he asked repeatedly, jumping up and down behind Sanzo in a way that invaded the monk's personal space in the most unintentionally annoying way possible.

"You stupid monkey!" Sanzo snapped, whipping out his harissen to strike Goku on the head in one swift and fluid motion that knocked him on his behind.

Another wry smile graced Myoko's face as she sweat-dropped. Even after all this time, she still had no idea where he pulled that thing out from... It was almost like a magic trick. A violent magic trick. She might have been concerned if she hadn't witnessed this type of scene enough times by now to know that it wasn't nearly as bad as it appeared.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Goku demanded incredulously, shielding his head with his hands from further attacks as Sanzo started stepping on him.

"What do you think?!" Sanzo yelled, seriously annoyed with all his pestering after that little display with the peach tree. He was sure his desk was already piled high with other complaints from trouble he caused while he was out, and he really hated the idea of having to be the one responsible for sorting it out. "Hurry up and go change! Quit grumbling, or I'm leaving you behind!"

"Oh, fine," Goku pouted, virtually unscathed despite his guardian's attempts to vent his explosive temper.

"Come on," Myoko said, offering him a hand up. "Let's get you brushed off. He's already in a bad mood, so try not to antagonize him too much."

"Antagonize?" Goku asked, tilting his head slightly.

"I think you're the last person who should talk," Sanzo told her with a straight face.

"Such constant trouble..." the monk Sanzo had grabbed muttered with disapproval. "Why did a great man like Sanzo-sama pick up such a hooligan? And Myoko-san my be a talented nun, but her behavior is..."

"I cannot agree more," the other monk who had complained earlier said. They tensed and beads of nervous sweat formed on their brows when they realized Sanzo had stopped and was shooting them a sidelong glare.

"If you're going to gossip, do it out of earshot," he told the old men sternly. "What I pick up or throw away is none of your business."

A soft, small smile graced Myoko's lips when she heard that. No matter what Sanzo said, or how much he tried to claim it didn't concern him, or tried to pretend that he didn't have them, the truth was that he cared about his friends.

"Sanzo, did you pick something up?" Goku asked innocently. "Like a disease?"

"Pfft!" a quiet snort of amusement escaped Myoko, and she had to try very hard not to laugh as another vein throbbed on Sanzo's forehead.

"Shut up! You want to die?" he snapped at the monkey. "And what are you laughing at?" he said, giving Myoko a small shove forward to get her moving, as he continued stalking towards the exit. It had been five years since that fateful day when they found him together in that strange stone cage high on Mt. Gogyou. _Why did I pick him up?_ he thought with a frown and his brow deeply furrowed. _That's what I want to know._ Personally, he blamed Myoko. They had both started hearing that annoying voice around the same time, but it was her who first suggested they take him all the way back to Chang'an with them after it became clear he wasn't an ordinary kid. Thanks to that it was _him_ who got saddled with the brat permanently as his official legal guardian. Admittedly, she did lend him an adequately helpful hand in looking after him most of the time. Sometimes she could even be prevailed upon take the noisy monkey on a short trip once in a blue moon, when he felt like his sanity was about to reach its breaking point. Unlike the monks she never complained (even if she did sometimes screw around), but conversely it was a real pain when she was away, because the number of headaches always seemed to double when she wasn't there.

"Wait up!" Goku called, pulling him out of his thoughts. Sanzo realized the others had caught up to him again. Goku was wearing his traveling clothes and carrying a backpack, and the plain bag Myoko kept her alms bowl in seemed fuller than before and appeared to be pulling down on her shoulder a little harder. She must have packed them at the speed of light. She could be incredibly efficient when she got serious.

"Hey, Myoko, where are we going?" Goku asked her.

"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "I don't know all the details myself..."

Sanzo could feel their curious gazes on his back, and the next thing he knew, Goku was bouncing around him again.

"Hey, where are we going, Sanzo? Hey? Hey, Hey? Hey, Sanzo, hello!?"

The creases in the young monk's brow deepened as the corner of his mouth twitched with irritation. "Make any more noise, and I'll kill you."

"You could at least tell us where we're going!" Goku persisted as they walked alongside him.

"We're going to see Hakkai and Gojyo," Sanzo replied. "And after that..."

"After that?" Goku asked. Myoko was very curious about that as well. She knew why they were meeting, but she still didn't know exactly where or what they were going to do once they did.

Sanzo stopped and they followed his gaze out in the direction of the path of the sun to the distant West.

"... That seems like a pretty general direction," Myoko remarked. "Can you be more specific?"

Sanzo sighed. He didn't need her starting, too. "Look, you..."

"Hey, Sanzo, can I have those cookies now?" Goku pleaded, tugging on his sleeve.

"Only if you promise to shut up," he replied grudgingly, shoving the bag back into his hand once he received a vigorous nod of agreement.

The cookies were inhaled in record timing, and they had managed to walk for some time in relative silence, until...

"Hey, Sanzo... How much longer?" Goku asked. "I'm really staving to death!" He stopped and plopped himself down to sit on a tree stump. "Don't you have any more snacks, Myoko?"

"Sorry, but that's all we have until suppertime, so the quicker we get there, the quicker we can eat," she apologized sympathetically, sensing another impending explosion in 3... 2... 1...

"But I'm starving now! I'm so hungry I can't move anymore," he said impatiently. "Hey, Sanzo—"

WHACK!

"—Ouch!" Goku cried when he was smacked by the harissen again.

 _And there it is..._ Myoko thought, sweat-dropping.

"Shut the hell up!" Sanzo shouted with a vein throbbing on his temple. He sighed tiredly and rubbed the back of his neck. Goku's whining was even more exhausting for him than the trek. "Damn it, to hear this coming from a guy who wouldn't die even if I killed him..."

"That's because I'm rechargeable!" Goku quipped.

"In other words, you're saying you want to be recharged now?" Myoko asked, sweat-dropping again. He'd just had a whole bag full of cookies... Most kids would be bouncing off the walls with spare energy.

"Yep~!" Goku sang happily.

"Is that something to be proud of?!" Sanzo snapped, giving him another kick.

"You could have just asked Hakkai to meet us," Goku pointed out.

"It's only a short distance!" Sanzo said. "Shut up and start walking, you stupid monkey!" Myoko took that to mean that he either didn't want that pointed out, or he had already done that and they were just meeting them halfway to save time. It was probably a combination of the two.

"But why are we suddenly meeting with Gojyo and Hakkai?" Goku asked.

"...!" Sanzo paused and shared a guarded glance with Myoko, who was staring at him rather expectantly. He didn't want to have to waste his time explaining everything more than once, but he decided he might as well just tell them now. "There's something I want to check."

"Something you want to check?" Goku repeated curiously while Myoko waited quietly for him to continue.

"Before, I was summoned by the Three Aspects of the Palace of the Setting Sun," Sanzo replied. He had only just returned when he crossed paths with Myoko outside the temple.

 _"Genjo Sanzo, servant of the Lord of the Heavens, humbly presents himself," the monk introduced himself formally as he bowed and kneeled before the giant screens of water illuminated by urns of burning blue fire in the temple's audience chamber, where images of the divine beings' faces were projected for the view of mortal eyes, even though they knew full well who he was from their previous dealings._

 _"You have done well to come, Genjo Sanzo," the male aspect greeted him gravely. "Time is of the essence. You must pardon us for pressing you."_

 _"Not at all."_

 _"You are surely already aware of the disturbance that is eating away at this world," the male aspect continued. They were aware that the priest had sent out agents to investigate the matter._

 _"From the West to the East... even as we speak, the casualties are growing throughout all of Shangri-La," the female aspect added._

 _"All of the youkais' sudden tendency towards savagery... and their loss of self, as well," the neutral aspect concluded._

 _"Indeed," said Sanzo. "Humans now cower before youkais, living their days in terror, next to death. 'Shangri-La' is now only a name. It is the very picture of Hell. What in the world is the cause of all this?" he asked grimly._

 _"Sanzo... do you know of 'Gyumaoh'?" asked the male aspect._

 _"Gyumaoh... a great youkai who was laid low in Houtou Castle by the war god, Prince Nataku, in the land of India far west of here, five hundred years ago," Sanzo said, recalling where he had heard the name before. "He refused to coexist with humans and devoured them for his own lust."_

 _"Someone is trying to revive that same Gyumaoh."_

 _This news startled Sanzo._

 _"Not only that, it is by means of a forbidden and tainted art... of combining science and black magic," said the neutral aspect._

"Forbidden? How come?" asked Goku, interrupting the story.

"Because the results are unpredictable, and that scares people," Myoko replied.

"Yes. Science and black magic are incompatible from the start, so no one knows what will happen," Sanzo confirmed.

 _"Just as the joining of youkais with humans is taboo," the neutral aspect continued._

 _"It will produce a negative aura that will destroy the balance in things," said the female aspect._

 _"You are saying that this is the cause of the youkais' savagery?" Sanzo asked._

 _"We fear it is so," replied the male aspect. Sanzo could see why they were in such a tizzy now. "Genjo Sanzo, I command you! Take Myoko, Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai, whom you share a past with, and head to India far west, to the root of all this evil!"_

 _"Discover who is conducting the experiments to revive Gyumaoh and why," the female ordered._

 _"And put a stop to Gyumaho's resurrection!" commanded the neutral._

 _"In order to recall the youkais to themselves," said the male._

 _"In order to regain Shangri-La, the land of peace and tranquility," added the female._

 _"As you wish," said Sanzo, accepting the grave task grimly._

"Oh, is that all...?" Myoko asked dryly, feeling a little chagrined. No wonder Sanzo was so annoyed. Why did such an important task have to get dumped on their shoulders? And there were only five of them. Sanzo could tell she understood the full gravity of the situation from the serious look in her eyes despite the sarcasm and calm expression on her face.

"Hmmm..." Goku hummed, holding his chin while he considered everything he had just heard. "So, in other words, we just gotta go to this India place and make the Gyumaoh experiments stop, right?" he asked brightly, giving the two humans a thumbs up. "That's a piece of cake!"

Sanzo sighed and held his head. "You know..."

"Piece of cake! Piece of cake!" Goku continued to cheer with a grin.

"Well, that's about the gist of it, but it's a little more complicated than that..." Myoko told him with a patient smile, sweat-dropping.

"In that case, let's hurry up and get going," Goku said, completely unperturbed. He didn't seem to be listening.

"Look here..." Sanzo sighed with his hands on his hips.

"So what did you want to confirm with Gojyo and Hakkai?" Goku asked.

"That was..." Sanzo began to explain when they heard a suspicious noise.

 _RUSTLE._

All three of them immediately furrowed their brows and glanced in its direction at a shaking bush as they detected a spike of malice, and three youkais oozing killing intent jumped out of hiding to attack.

"Nyoi-bou!" Goku yelled, summoning his staff as Myoko quickly reached for the hidden youkai-banishing sword attached to her umbrella's handle to counter. "ORYAAAH _!_!" Goku blocked his opponent's blade and sent him flying, while Myoko sidestepped the spear thrusted at her and cut hers down in a flash of metal when she drew the blade from the shaft in a single stroke. She quickly slid the rest of her umbrella into its holster on her back so she could continue to fight with both hands. Meanwhile, Sanzo dodged his opponent's strikes with ease.

"You're slow," the monk said calmly as he stepped behind the burly youkai to deliver a blow from behind, knocking him to the ground. "Freeze!" he ordered, drawing his gun and aiming it at his attacker's head before he could finish getting back up.

"Idiot! You think you can kill a demon with just a gun?" the youkai said cockily.

"You're the idiot," Sanzo retorted coolly. "This isn't just any gun." He pulled the hammer back and prepared to fire. "It's a banishing gun for killing youkais."

"Eh!?" the youkai cried in fear and alarm.

"Die!" Sanzo told him with his finger on the trigger.

"Wait!" the youkai pleaded, but it was too late. The exorcising bullet pierced his brain before he could get another word out.

"Go train in the world beyond."

"Sanzo!" Goku called as he and Myoko closed ranks around the monk, so that the three of them stood back to back.

"Sorry, they just keep popping up," she said, furrowing her brow as she glared steadily at the many demons who had gathered to surround them in the meantime.

"Hmph. You must be getting rusty for you to let them pile up like this," Sanzo remarked, causing her to sweat-drop.

"I'm not the only one fighting here, you know..." she reminded him.

"You guys can flirt later!" Goku said. "Don't tell me these guys are all..."

"Youkais who have switched sides to Gyumaoh," Sanzo confirmed through gritted teeth with a vein pulsing on his temple. That smart-ass monkey was definitely gonna pay for that stupid remark later.

"It's two humans!" one of the larger male demons exclaimed.

"Eat them!" yelled a butch female.

"I call dibs on the girl!" a particularly ugly male youkai shouted.

Myoko's eyebrow twitched. She was always popular with the worst sort... Frankly, she'd rather be eaten. "Sorry, but you aren't my type."

"Kuh! Damn bitch! I'll carve you up like a rack of spare ribs!"

Sanzo glared at them and clenched his jaw in frustration. "We let our guards down."

"Their eyes look totally crazed!" Goku exclaimed. Even he was starting to feel nervous.

Myoko gritted her teeth. She readjusted her grip on her sword and bent her knees. "If Sanzo backs me up, I can cut a path," she said, preparing to charge.

Sanzo raised his gun. "Guard the back, Goku."

Myoko watched the youkais directly in front of her carefully, searching for an opening. "Three... Two..."

 _SHNNG!_

The cornered group of three was pleasantly surprised when a familiar sickle-blade flew threw the air to strike them down first for them instead. Their eyes followed the path of the chained blade's retreat to its owner up to the top of the cliff that loomed above them and saw the two people they had been wanting to meet up with.

"I'm finally beginning to see what's happening to this world, and why it's gotta be us," Gojyo called down, striking a cool pose, while Hakkai gave them a little wave.

"Gojyo! Hakkai!" Goku said.

"Nice timing!" Myoko praised.

"Long time no see," Hakkai greeted them with a polite smile with Hakuryuu perched on his shoulders.

Their two friends leaped down to join them, and the little white dragon fluttered down close behind.

"How've you been, you stinking monk, tomboy nun, and stupid monkey?" Gojyo asked with a teasing smirk.

"Don't call me a stupid monkey, you pervy Kappa!" Goku shouted angrily with a vein throbbing on his temple and one of his fists raised threateningly.

"Then are you a dumb monkey?! Well?!" Gojyo retorted hotly, raising his own fist in response.

"Hahaha..." Hakkai laughed awkwardly with wry smile, while Myoko deadpanned and Sanzo immediately face-palmed.

"I ain't a dumb monkey, either!"

"Now, now..." Hakkai said calmly, but his efforts went unnoticed.

"Then are you mini?! How about tiny?! Or micro?!"

"No! Why, you! Just shut up!"

"Oh, boys..." Myoko said in an eerie sing-song voice that actually made them stop and slowly turn to look at her. "I'm not going to have to come over there and stop you, am I?" she asked with a sharp, sickly-sweet smile that sent chills up their spines. "Did you forget we're in the middle of a battle?"

"... No, ma'am..." the loudmouth monkey and perverted kappa said quietly, visibly shrinking a little. She was even scarier than Hakkai when she smiled like that.

"My, Myoko-san sure is good at wrangling them in, huh?" Hakkai remarked with a bright smile, amused by their reactions.

"Hmph. When she tries," Sanzo scoffed. He really wished she would do it more often. "How did you find us?"

"I sensed an enormous amount of malignant youkai energy, so..." Hakkai replied, turning around to face him with serious expression on his face. "It seems that the only youkais in Shangri-La that have retained their sense of self are Gojyo, Goku, and myself."

"Surprise attack!" one of their remaining attackers yelled as they suddenly regained their nerve and charged forward at them to lunge in for the kill.

Gojyo smirked and spun around to grab the youkai's face with one hand, and crushed his head.

Myoko moved her own head aside to avoid the blood splatter. "It's not much of a surprise attack if they announce it."

"Ugh... You got that right," Gojyo agreed, shaking the blood from his hand. "Train yourself another two million years before you fight me," he told the youkais.

This made the rest of them change tactics almost immediately. "Kill the ones who look weak first!" one of them shouted, leading the charge toward Hakkai. "It's a bit dirty, but..."

Without turning around, Hakkai smiled and raised his arm. "Hakuryuu, It's dangerous here, so..." he said kindly, allowing the little dragon to fly to a safer location as their enemies closed in. The youkais were taken aback when he suddenly flipped up into the air and out of the way before they could even touch him. "Hya-ah!" Without giving them any time to react, Hakkai twisted around while he was still hovering over them and fired a concentrated blast of chi from his hands that completely obliterated them all in shot.

"Hakkai, when did you learn that technique?" Goku asked as he landed next to him.

Hakkai smiled with his eyes closed and held up a finger while he rubbed the back of his head. "I just tried it for the first time," he admitted, making Goku blink in disbelief. "I copied something I saw once. Well, I guess copying works pretty well."

"It usually wouldn't," Goku retorted as he sweat-dropped, dumbfounded.

"Look at those cuffs and gold band!" one of the few remaining youkais exclaimed when they noticed their bling.

"Demon power limiters!" another said.

"You four are demons, aren't you?!" they asked, pointing at Hakkai, Goku, Gojyo, and Myoko.

"Four?" Myoko asked with a frown, pointing at herself. They were including her in that? She was just albino. Didn't these idiots know the difference? "I don't really look like a youkai, do I?" she asked Sanzo.

He very calmly took out a cigarette and lit it. Then he looked straight at her. "No comment."

"Bastard..." she huffed, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow as she sweat-dropped.

"Why do you fight against us?" the yokais continued.

"I'll tell you!" Goku said. The youkais blinked, startled when he, Hakkai, and Gojyo leaped into the air to attack. "If you survive, that is!"

" _!_!" the yokais cried out in fear.

While Myoko and Sanzo watched them fight, he remembered the rest of his conversation with the Three Aspects.

 _"Sanbutsushin-samas, I have one question to ask," Sanzo said. "I can understand Myoko, since she's a nun and capable enough, but why have you appointed those three, who are youkais?"_

 _"They are certainly youkais, but they are also human," the male aspect replied. "That is why they can maintain their sense of self without giving in to the negative aura. Genjo Sanzo, that is something you know well, having seen it all. It is ironic that the scars each of them bears from their pasts are what form the web that connects you all. Power and spiritual strength that makes them equal to the task of defeating other demons. They are the final trump cards that have been left to us."_

 _"Yes, I cannot deny their abilities," said Sanzo. "However, as long as demonic blood flows in their veins, we never know when that blood may gain supremacy, causing them to turn it on us. I believe putting our faith in such a lot would be suicidal."_

 _"Whether you really believe that or you are just saying that, it does not change the fact that it is true. Genjo Sanzo, in truth, the one who appointed those four as your companions was the Merciful Goddess of the Heavens."_

 _"The Merciful Goddess?!" Sanzo asked, surprised. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. Painful memories flashed behind his eyelids. "With all due respect, the only one I can trust is myself. Ever since I lost what was dearest to me, my feelings on that have never changed."_

 _"Then, Sanzo, you must place your trust in the eyes of your heart."_

 _"Eyes of my heart...?" he asked. That sounded like a line from one of the songs Myoko liked to sing._

 _"Now you must meet them and ascertain for yourself with your eyes. From it, you will learn what you need, and what you must trust."_

"We're the best! The best!" Goku and Gojyo cheered, grinning and clapping their hands in a high-five.

"..." Sanzo watched them closely. 'What I must trust...' he thought.

" _!_!" Goku was surprised when a youkai who was still clinging to consciousness grabbed his ankle.

"Hold it... our comrades," he growled darkly from his place on the ground, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth as he let go to point at the three youkai and Myoko. "You traitors who side with the weak humans. Your place is not with them. Reconsider it again. Won't you chant with us? Long live the youkai empire!"

"I've already said I'm human..." Myoko muttered with a vein pulsing on her forehead while the idiot laughed like a villain from a cheesy drama.

"Kuhahahahahaha! Ha...uk!" the youkai's maniacal laughter was cut short when Goku and Gojyo stabbed him with their weapons together with Hakkai as he stomped on his head.

"He sure does like to talk a lot of bullshit," Gojyo remarked, leaning against Hakkai.

"'Human side'?! Feh! Since the day I was born, and til the day I die..." Goku said, straightening up. "I stand only on my side!" he finished as the others smirked in agreement.

 _'Trust in my own eyes...'_ Sanzo thought.

"Looks like we don't have anything to worry about here, right?" Myoko commented, looking up at him with a smile.

Sanzo stared back at her and realized the same concerns had crossed her mind, too. _Of course, they did._ She wasn't an idiot, no matter how much she liked to play dumb sometimes. "Myoko," he said.

"Hm?"

Sanzo looked at the others. "Goku, Gojyo, Hakkai."

"Yeah?" they said, turning to look at him.

"Let's go," Sanzo told them, facing the sunset. "To the West."

—∞—

"Kogaiji-sama! There's some kind of movement from the East," a tall female youkai with purple hair reported to her superior in Houtou Castle.

"I already know," the brooding, redheaded male youkai said. "Nobody will stop me. Have everything ready by early next morning. Follow me, you three!" he instructed his loyal followers, also addressing the tall, muscular male with spiky brown hair and a younger female with white hair, pale skin, and periwinkle blue eyes.

"Yes!" they answered dutifully.

"Mother..." their leader said, pausing to gaze up at the beautiful female youkai trapped within a stone pillar. "For your sake... _!_!"

—∞—

The West and the East, each started to take matters into action. To the place where the sun rises, and where the sun sets.

—∞—

"Hey..." Sanzo said, sweat-dropping as a small vein throbbed on his forehead, starting to get fed up with the noise coming from the back of the Jeep.

"Dried octopus!" Goku said excitedly.

"Ki-ya! Delicious!" Gojyo said. "You sure packed a good spread, Myoko!"

"If you really think that, then why don't you leave some for me?" she asked, glaring at them for eating all of the candied sweet potato. "And can you not move around so much? It's already crowded enough back here."

"You think we're out here for a picnic? _!_!" Sanzo snapped incredulously at the noisy idiots arguing in the back of the Jeep. Myoko stopped talking and looked at him.

"You mean we're not?" she asked along with Hakkai.

"Well..." Sanzo said, sweat-dropping again. "It does seem like it, but..."

"There's red pickled ginger, too..." Myoko said, leaning through the gap in the seats from the back and holding out a small plate to tempt him.

"..." Sanzo fell silent as he eyed the dish. "Hand it over."

"I guess it _is_ a picnic, after all!" Hakkai said brightly. "Are there any stuffed onigiri in there?"

"Some are egg and ketchup, and the others are mayonnaise," she replied.

"Mayonnaise and...?" Hakkai asked.

"Just Mayo," she answered with a straight face.

"..." they all stopped and stared at her, even Goku and Gojyo.

"There's also some sweet and spicy ones mixed in made with jam and hot sauce," she added.

"I forgot how weird your sense of taste is..." Gojyo told her, sweat-dropping, while Goku nodded in agreement.

"You guys are really rude, you know that?" she deadpanned in response. She didn't make fun of their culinary preferences.

"At least she got the idiots to stop arguing..." Sanzo muttered under his breath, earning a wry smile from Hakkai.

—∞—

"We've received a report from the Three Aspects. It says that they sent Sanzo and his comrades to the West," Jiroushin, the tired but faithful assistant of the Merciful Goddess reported to her in Heaven. "It seems as though things are finally moving, Kanzeon Bosatsu..."

"Hmm..." she mused. "Everything has already been started..."

"Eh?" Jiroushin said, surprised.

"Five hundred years ago..." The goddess recalled images of a brown-haired boy with golden eyes sitting atop a mountain and a white-haired girl with pink eyes and a red chakra on her forehead floating in a pool of wild lotuses. Things had been set in motion the moment that monkey and flower first appeared.


	2. First Game

**Chapter 2: First Game**

* * *

"Gojyo! Let's switch seats!" Goku complained. "I'm dying because of you smoking in front of me _!_!"

"Ahh. I'm sorry," Gojyo said, not sounding it all. "I forgot there was a kid sitting in the back," he finished with a smirk.

"What did you say?!" Goku shouted incredulously.

"Stop it, you two..." Sanzo groaned at them from the front passenger seat with a vein throbbing on his head as he leaned against his hand. "If you want to fight, do it outside the car!" He really wished Myoko would quit humming along to the song on the radio and reading her book under the shade of her umbrella long enough to give those two a good whack. He had no idea how she could tune them out like that.

"Hahaha, just wait a bit more," Hakkai said patiently with a closed-eyed smile. "We'll soon be arriving in a town! We'll be able to stay a night under a roof for once."

—∞—

After driving a fair distance, they came upon the place Hakkai mentioned. They also happened to come across a fight at the same time.

"You bitch! Apologize right away _!_!" one of the thugs involved roared furiously.

"No _!_! You're the one who bumped into me on purpose!" the girl they were trying to harass said defiantly.

Myoko's ears twitched when she heard that, and she finally looked up from her book and lowered her dark sunglasses a little to see what the problem was, but it looked like Gojyo and Goku were already on the case, because they were out of the Jeep and marching straight toward the unsightly scene. Her own intervention seemed unnecessary.

"I told you we'll let you go as soon as you leave those bags," thug B said as they pressed in closer to invade her personal space while she clutched her bag of groceries protectively in her arms. "You don't want a scar in that beautiful face of yours, now do you? _Eh?"_

"Stop..." she started to protest again, when Gojyo's foot came crashing down on top of thug C's head, smashing it face-first into the ground.

"Uhuuuh _!_!" he grunted, grimacing in pain and disgust when he was forced to kiss the dirt.

 _Huh?_ the girl thought, surprised.

"Che! What a wuss," Gojyo scoffed. "Yo. Is there a hotel around here?" he asked the girl while he and Goku stared at her. "A hotel." He punctuated the sentence by grinding the thug's face under his boot when he tried to get up again.

"Huh?" the girl said aloud, still stunned.

"Who are these guys?!" thug A asked incredulously with a vein throbbing on his head as he turned to face the newcomers with the knife in his hand raised threateningly. "If you butt in, I'll..."

Goku sent him flying with a single punch.

"Euk! Uuak!" thug A groaned as he crashed back down to the ground. The startled girl took a step back, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Bingo~!" Goku said with a cheeky grin.

"Hey, hey! Goku!" Sanzo shouted, standing up in the Jeep. "Didn't I tell you to avoid, as much as you can, drawing attention?!"

 _Says the man yelling at the top of his lungs with a gold crown on his head..._ Myoko thought, taking note of all the people on the streets who had turned their attention from the fight to them and their unusual mode of transportation.

"I think we are also drawing attention, Sanzo," Hakkai pointed out with a smile.

"Forget it, Hakkai," Myoko said with a sigh, shutting her book. "These guys wouldn't know 'low profile' if it slapped them in the face."

"Are _you_ asking to be slapped in the face?" Sanzo retorted shortly.

"Nah, I'm just saying good-looking people attract attention no matter what they do," she replied calmly with a perfectly straight face while looking directly at the monk, making Hakkai laugh and Sanzo face-palm to hide his expression, which was a mix of exasperation and something else that he refused to acknowledge. He had no idea how she could say stuff like that with such a serious look on her face.

"Yeah, you're 8.5 times more suspicious looking," Goku added.

"Compared to yourself?" the monk asked, sweat-dropping.

"Jeep...?" the girl they rescued mumbled, sinking to her knees. _But there wasn't anyone who owned a Jeep around here... Who are these people?_

Goku leaned down and picked up the apple that had fallen from her bag for her. "Here," he said with a smile, holding it out to return it to her. "We're travelers. Could you tell us of a hotel that makes good food?"

"It would be even better if it has a garage too," Hakkai added pleasantly.

"Um..." the girl said, blushing. "Then... how about to our house? But... that hair..." she said nervously, eyeing Myoko with suspicion.

"This?" Myoko said, touching her white locks. "I'm albino. Is that a problem?"

"Oh, no!" the girl said, looking extremely relieved. "Then, by all means, please follow me."

"... I was just mistaken for a youkai again, wasn't I?" Myoko whispered to the guys behind her hand. People never used to cause this much fuss over her unusual looks before. Did this mean it was because people used to just assume she was a friendly youkai instead of strangely colored human?

"It seems that way," Hakkai agreed with a wry smile, which he found funny since the girl had said nothing about any of the real youkais in the group.

—∞—

On her suggestion, their group of five followed the girl back to her family's hotel, and they parked Jeep under a covered area for the night before heading inside to eat. The food was delicious, but the company left something to be desired.

"He... Hey _!_! I'm the one who ordered pork!" Goku shouted angrily with a vein throbbing on his head when Gojyo tried to take a piece from the plate. "Give it!"

"Are you going to be stingy?!" Gojyo said, annoyed, eating it anyway just to mess with him. "Go and chew on some grass, you monkey!"

Their young hostess sweat-dropped as she watched, not quite sure what to make of them. It was hard to believe they were arguing over one plate, when the whole table was covered with food.

"Now you've done it, you C-class Kappa!" Goku yelled furiously.

"So what? You damn little monkey _!_!" Gojyo said defiantly with a vein popping on his forehead, flipping him off.

"Damn it _!_!" Eat quietly you punks _!_!" Sanzo snapped furiously, whacking both with his harrisen hard enough to send them crashing from their chairs to the floor.

"Excuse me, can I have some more tea?" Hakkai called.

"Oh, that sounds good. Could have a refill, too, please?" Myoko asked, casually taking advantage of the chaos to quickly and stealthily steel two pieces of pork while the others were down for the count.

"Haha," the girl laughed, smiling in amusement at their antics. _These people are funny!_

"Okay! Dear guests! Thank you for saving my daughter, Houmei!" the owner greeted them as he came out from the back to help her wait on them, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Dad," Houmei said with a smile.

"Thank you," Hakkai responded pleasantly in kind.

"Not at all," the older man said. "But tell me, did you all come from the east?" he asked as he set down their drink orders.

"Ahh... So?" Sanzo asked, pausing with his chopsticks over his plate.

"Heh! That's amazing!" Houmei said brightly, impressed. "These days, people don't go to the east deserts because of the danger. But you five came all the way over here unharmed! You must be really strong!" she exclaimed, causing them all to sweat-drop. "Especially when there's been rumors that five nasty youkais have been appearing. Whenever they pass by, thousands of dead youkai corpses are found lying around. Well, since they are fighting amongst themselves, there haven't been any casualties for us townspeople, but..."

"You know," Goku said, "that almost sounds like..." Before he could get another word out, Myoko threw a dumpling into his open mouth with a subtle flick of her wrist, and Gojyo pushed his head down against the table to shut him up.

"Sorry, sorry," Gojyo said with a crooked smile. "There was a fly sitting on your head. Oh, man! I missed it _!_!"

"..." A vein throbbed on Goku's annoyed head while he chewed on the dumpling with his head still pressed to the table.

"You don't have to worry about it," Hakkai told Houmei with a bright smile when he saw the puzzled expression on her face.

"...?" Houmei said, sweat-dropping again.

"By the way, what's the attitude of the youkais around here?" Sanzo asked.

"Well... there's nothing to say about them. Not too long ago, the youkais were living peacefully in this town," the innkeeper said. "But one day, they all disappeared after they devoured over ten of the townspeople. We humans just don't know what's going on."

 _So this town, too..._ Sanzo and Myoko thought grimly.

 _Everything is unfolding just as the Three Aspects said... This chaos is spreading through all of Shangri-La,_ he mused.

 _The youkais who have gone berserk are inflicting more terror amongst the humans, hastening the destruction of the balance at the same time,_ she thought.

 _It's a vicious cycle..._ they concluded.

"I hate youkais," Houmei suddenly said harshly, jarring them from their thoughts and startling the others. "I wish all the youkais in the world would just disappear!"

"Houmei!" her father said, trying to calm her down.

"They eat humans! They're nothing but monsters!" she cried angrily, clutching the serving tray tightly in her arms. "It's impossible for humans and youkais to live together! Even the townsfolk say so _!_!"

"Houmei!" her father repeated sternly. They shouldn't be making a scene in front of their guests, especially when... "I'm really sorry," he apologized on his daughter's behalf. "One of the victims killed by the youkais was a friend of hers."

 _I see... no wonder,_ Myoko thought sympathetically, observing the tortured expression on the younger girl's face while Houmei tried to compose herself. The unwelcome memory of the battered and bruised body of her teacher flashed through her mind. _The death of a loved one isn't something you can just get over that easily... When someone you care for dies in front of you, it's hard not to get poisoned by hate._ She then noticed how Houmei's outburst had affected Goku, and how troubled he looked on the poor girl's behalf. She caught his eye and gave him a gentle smile to comfort him.

Hakkai set his chopsticks down and smiled politely at their hosts. "... Thank you for the food. Did you make all of this, Houmei-chan?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject to something more less sensitive.

"Um... yes," Houmei replied.

"Really?!" Goku asked excitedly, his expression doing a complete one-eighty as he smiled at his new favorite cook with the brilliance of a thousand white-hot suns. "Wow _!_! I haven't had such a good meal since the last time I can remember. Thanks~!"

"Ah..." Houmei said quietly, surprised, and hid shyly behind her tray. "Thank you..."

"Mm. This meal definitely tops my chart, too. I wish I could cook like this," Myoko agreed with another radiant smile.

"I wish you could cook like this, too," Gojyo muttered sardonically under his breath, but she still caught it, and before he could blink, Myoko had flipped her chopsticks around in her hand and had them shoved up his nose in lieu of her fingers for a nose hook. "O-O-O-Owww _!_! _!_ " he cried in pain, flailing his arms in a panic. "The hell's that for, you bitch!? You really gonna attack someone for speaking the truth!?"

"It's not what you said, but how you said it," she replied with a semi-annoyed look on her face, raising her hand to pull his nose higher. She didn't like his tone.

Gojyo couldn't believe she would attack him over something so minor. Normally, she would just smile and laugh it off. It usually took a lot more than that to provoke her. Except when it was that time of the month, of course. "Goddammit, are you PM—OOOWWWW _!_? _!_ "

"Myoko, hand chops are fine, but can you refrain from doing nose hooks at the table?" Sanzo deadpanned with a small vein on his forehead, starting to get annoyed by all the fuss Gojyo was making. The idiot should know better than to provoke her during Shark Week.

"Hand chops are _not_ fine _!_!" the half youkai shouted incredulously as she finally removed her chopsticks, massaging his poor nose. "Don't encourage her, you stinking monk _!_! Geez, you're so violent, it's no wonder you can't get a m—ahh _!_!" His rant was cut short by a swift hand chop to the head from Myoko before he could finish the stupid insult he tried to hurl at her.

"Who cares, I'm awesome," she stated firmly with a perfectly serious expression.

Sanzo was honestly beginning to think Gojyo was too dumb to live.

"Hahaha, you two seem to be on a roll tonight, in your own ways..." Hakkai laughed with a smile. "I don't suppose you have any chocolate, do you?" he asked Houmei and her father wryly, also coming to same conclusion as Gojyo, but handling it much better. He had heard from Sanzo before that the best way to cope with an upset Myoko was to keep your distance and throw chocolate (or one of her other favorite foods) at her if she growled.

—∞—

After dinner, they moved to the interior balcony on the second floor to play cards before bed.

"Tada~ _!_! I have eight," Goku said proudly, showing them his hand as they played Black Jack. "Eight _!_!"

"Sixteen," Myoko declared with grin after she flipped hers over.

"Ah! I have twenty-one," Hakkai said with a brilliant shit-eating grin as he displayed his winning set.

"No way!" Myoko said, totally disappointed. She was sure she had him this time! She pouted and popped another piece from the chocolate bar they had procured for her into her mouth.

"Uak! You bastard! How many times is it?!" Gojyo exclaimed incredulously with a small vein throbbing on his forehead. Hakkai had won so many times that it was getting ridiculous.

 _It's been ten days since we left the temple..._ Sanzo thought while he watched the other four play from the next table over, recalling something else the Three Aspects told him that he had chosen not to mention to the others yet.

 _Also, for Gyumaoh's revival... the inheritance your sensei left behind... is needed._

" _!_ _!" Sanzo gasped, shocked. The scripture I carry, the Maten Sutra has the power to break away darkness, and Sensei's, the Seiten Sutra has the power to create light. The night Sensei's murderer took his life... when his scripture became missing... Why is that in the West? he wondered._

"... zo. Sanzo?" Hakkai asked, making Sanzo start when the monk realized he had been trying to get his attention. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Ahh. Thanks," Sanzo said, accepting the cup.

"It seems as though after hearing that conversation during dinner... the humans' anxiety and fear about the existence of youkais have grown," Hakkai observed.

"Yeah... Since most humans don't know the reason for the disturbance, to them it will only seem as though the youkais are showing their true nature," Sanzo agreed.

"And it's not like they'll understand even if we tell them," Gojyo added.

"Yeah, people have a hard time accepting those who are different to begin with," Myoko agreed, joining Sanzo and Hakkai at their table. "Plus, even if they understand the cause, it doesn't change the fact that they're being attacked."

"Gojyo may not have a problem... but if it weren't for the youkai power limiters, Goku and I wouldn't even be able to walk through the streets," Hakkai reminded them. "It seems even Myoko, a normal human, is under suspicion because of her looks."

"Only by the ignorant or unobservant," Myoko quipped. "It should be pretty obvious I'm human, since I'm not wearing jewelry or anything else that could be a power limiter."

Sanzo glanced between them. The Three Aspects said he had orders from the Merciful Goddess to go West with these four in order to find what he was looking for. _But with these kind of guys..._ he thought, sweat-dropping, as Gojyo and Goku began yet another stupid and petty fight over the cards.

"What?! Just because you won, don't get so full of it _!_!" Goku told the perverted kappa as they started to wrestle.

"You're the one who asked for another game _!_!" Gojyo retorted irritably, pushing down on the little monkey's head.

Hakkai and Myoko smiled wryly at their antics and sweat-dropped, too. But her smile tensed as her eyes slide to the side when she heard movement below and sensed a negative shift in the atmosphere, and she saw a whole troop of strangers entering the inn. It was an unpleasant feeling. "Those people..."

"Huh?" Goku said, pausing his side of the fight to look at the men and women below. "Ahh. They're the guests who just signed in as a group. Some kind of traveling performers or something."

"Oh, did you find that out from Houmei-chan?" Myoko asked him playfully with a teasing grin.

 _A traveling troupe?_ Sanzo thought, gazing down at them.

Gojyo also moved closer to the railing to have a look for himself and grinned. "The dancers look so damn hot!" he leered with a salacious smile, admiring the women's curves. "Should I invite them to dance in my bed?"

PHWEEEEEP!

"Instructional guidance!" Hakkai interrupted with his whistle and a brilliant shit-eating grin before his comments could get more R-rated.

"Way too much information, bro," Myoko added. He could do what he wanted, but she didn't need to hear about it.

"Oh? What's the matter, Myoko?" Gojyo said with a devious smirk, deciding to tease her. "Jealous?" he asked, leaning down and moving in to put his arm around her, only to be stopped short by the sensation of having something cold and sharp pressed against his throat. In that split second, Myoko had reached back and drawn her blade from her umbrella just enough to scare him.

"Don't make me stab you," she retorted emotionlessly with an expression that said she was not to be fu— _messed with._

A bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of Gojyo's face and the back of his neck as he carefully removed himself from her personal space. "... Why am I the only one you're giving such a hard time tonight?" he asked, chagrined.

"Because you're the only one who keeps provoking me," she answered coolly, as if it should have been obvious, earning a small laugh and wide smile from Hakkai, which he covered with a cough. Gojyo seemed to be a slow learner when it came to their favorite nun.

"Tch. Idiot," Sanzo scoffed under his breath. It served him right. He turned his attention back to the traveling troupe. It hadn't escaped his notice the way Myoko had tensed up when they entered, and since she tended to have the same sharp level of instinct when it came to sensing malice as a wild animal, even when she wasn't consciously aware of it, he thought it bore the need for further scrutiny. He soon realized why when he focused in on one man who had his head heavily wrapped in a scarf. The stranger was staring straight up at him, and there was a strange look in his eyes. _...?_ the monk thought, his frown deepening with suspicion and concern.

"So, what are we going to do tonight, Sanzo?" Goku asked. "Houmei told me that because of the traveling performers, the common room is full, but they still have vacant singles."

"Is that so. Well, let's see," said Sanzo, eyeing the troupe with suspicion again. "We don't know when or where the youkais might strike. So it would be wisest for us to stick together. Is what I should say. But having come all the way to an inn, I don't want to see your sleeping faces. I see your mugs often enough, and I don't want to have to see them here, too," he concluded, turning on his heel to walk away and head for one of the private rooms. "Dismissed!"

Myoko and Goku both yawned as they all immediately went their separate ways without protest. She might have argued against splitting up if she was in a better mood, but as it was she was more concerned about finally getting some space to herself than safety at the moment.

"How understanding of him," said Gojyo. He didn't want to see a bunch of guys' sleeping faces either, and he hated to think of what might happen to him if he and moody Myoko were kept together in a confined space for much longer.

"My, everyone's so honest with themselves," Hakkai remarked with a smile. "Good night."

—∞—

Myoko's eye twitched a little as she lay wide awake in bed, staring up at the full moon outside her window, unable to sleep thanks to her haywire hormones, even with the pain reliever she borrowed from Houmei. The air felt abnormally stuffy, and the crickets seemed especially loud somehow. She was pretty sure it was just her, though. Which made it all that much worse. _This is gonna be a long night..._ she thought, sweat-dropping. _I hope those guys from earlier don't cause any trouble... Ah, I hope I didn't just jinx us._

—∞—

The door to Sanzo's room opened silently as the man with the scarf wrapped around his head crept in stealthily with a knife clutched in his hand. The intruder licked his lips as he drew closer to Sanzo's bed, gripping the deadly blade with both hands as he raised it high above his head to strike his sleeping victim.

" _!_!" he gasped when Sanzo suddenly sat up and grabbed his wrist to stop him. The monk pressed his thumb into a pressure point on his hand to force him to drop the knife. "Euk!" the intruder grimaced as the weapon fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Sneaky bastard," Sanzo sneered, keeping a firm hold on his attacker as he jumped from his bed to pin him to the floor with his other hand gripping the scarf on his head.

The intruder gritted his teeth and winced in pain at the harsh impact, but he quickly pulled his head free from the scarf to escape, revealing his true identity as a youkai when his pointed ears and youkai mark were exposed. "Damn it!" he cursed as Sanzo dodged the desperate swipe he took at his face with his sharpened claws.

Sanzo retaliated with a swift kick over the top of the youkai's head, bringing him to his knees. "How weak."

"You... _I'll kill you!"_ the youkai screamed with fury as he tried to move to attack again, only to freeze when he found the monk's revolver aimed straight at his head.

"Who were you going to kill?" Sanzo asked coldly.

" _!_!" the youkai gasped as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of his face.

"Hmmm... Nice tricks you used back there," Sanzo told him. He had done a good job of suppressing his youkai energy until now. _Pointy ears, a birthmark shaped like a symbol—with just one glance, it's obvious to tell he's not human—proof that he's a youkai._ "Who sent you?" he asked, pulling the hammer back on his gun. "Tell me who violated what was forbidden and gave rise to this chaos." _And..._ Images of his old master and blood splatter surfaced in his mind, a reminder that his scripture had somehow fallen into the hands of these people. He wanted answers for that night. "Tell me. I'll give you 10 seconds."

"Kuk... _!_!" the youkai grunted anxiously, gritting his teeth.

 _BANG!_

"Well?!" Sanzo demanded impatiently with a vein pulsing on his head, firing the first round past his ear.

"U-aak _!_! It's only been two seconds!" the youkai shouted anxiously, cringing in fear. Sanzo pulled the hammer back again. "I... I don't know who's behind it! We're just following Kougaiji-sama's orders!"

 _Kougaiji?_ Sanzo thought, recognizing the name. _The son that was born between Gyumaoh and Rasetsunyo. I've heard that he's talented in both martial arts and sorcery. But there's no way that he could have that much power to be able to revive Gyumaoh alone. When Gyumaoh was put down five hundred years ago, Kougaiji was supposed to have been sealed away in Houtou Castle in India. Who broke the seal on Kougaiji? Whoever did it is most likely the one who is plotting to revive Gyumaoh._

"You sure you should be taking so much time here?" the youkai asked, getting his attention to make sure it stayed on him when he caught a glint in the darkness behind the monk.

"What?" Sanzo asked, frowning and furrowing his brow.

"The other rooms have been ambushed, too. By now, your friends—"

"Hmph! So what?" Sanzo scoffed with a smirk. "Sorry, but, I'm not the kind of guy who would worry about the well-being of others." He never would have brought the others along in the first place if he didn't think they could take care of themselves. And he really pitied the poor soul who got stuck with Myoko in her current state.

SHNG.

"Uk!" Sanzo said, surprised when his wrists were suddenly caught tight in a sticky string, forcing him to drop his gun. It clattered against the floor and went sliding across the room. "Kuk!" He gritted his teeth and tried to pull himself free, but they wouldn't budge. _Spiderweb?!_

"That's right, priest," a feminine voice sneered. "This is not the time for you to worry about others."

Sanzo looked up as its owner emerged from the shadows and saw in the gleam of the moonlight that the spiderweb binding him was connected to the hand of a female youkai with a rose-shaped mark on her chest. _A spider youkai!_ Of course, how could he have been so stupid, to let himself get distracted like that?

The spider youkai stuck her tongue out and licked her lips with anticipation, her eyes shining with malicious excitement. "Since you're going to die!"

"!" The crease in Sanzo's brow deepened when he noticed another disturbing detail in the dim light. In the youkai's other arm, she was holding an unconscious Houmei. "You've captured a hostage?!"

The spider youkai smirked. "No one has ever escaped our Dark Spider clan's webs, Priest Genjo Sanzo!"

—∞—

"Ho-Houmei... _!_!" her father gasped, struggling to get up from the floor of the kitchen, where the youkais had left him after giving him a beating to get him out of the way.

—∞—

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Sanzo's face as he glared at the youkai.

"I've captured a big one today, eh? Haha!" she laughed, completely confident in her victory.

 _There's been a change of dimensions from the floor to the ceiling,_ Sanzo thought, continuing his struggle to break free. _Is this an illusion due to her powers?_

"Stop the useless resistance," the spider youkai told him. "Don't you care what will happen to this girl?"

Sanzo's gaze hardened. "Stop it. I'll kill you."

The spider youkai laughed through her nose and smirked.


	3. Get Squared

**Previously:**

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Sanzo's face as he glared at the youkai.

"I've captured a big one today, eh? Haha!" she laughed, completely confident in her victory.

 _There's been a change of dimensions from the floor to the ceiling,_ Sanzo thought, continuing his struggle to break free. _Is this an illusion due to her powers?_

"Stop the useless resistance," the spider youkai told him. "Don't you care what will happen to this girl?"

Sanzo's gaze hardened. "Stop it. I'll kill you."

The spider youkai laughed through her nose and smirked.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Get Squared  
**

* * *

"I will not allow you to go to the West," the spider youkai said loftily, enjoying the way she had Sanzo trapped within her webs. "Now, you must head towards the underworld. Of course, all five of you."

—∞—

Myoko furrowed her brow in annoyance when a shaft of light cut through her room, piercing the darkness to glow through her closed eyelids just when she had finally begun to drift off to dreamland. She gritted her teeth in anger as a shadow crept closer to her bed, waiting until it was right behind her to strike. The youkai assigned to attack her reached for the dagger he kept up his sleeve. Through sleepy, squinted eyes Myoko saw the light reflected by its blade against the window by her bed. In an instant, the nun flipped onto her back and reached up to grab the rude asshole who woke her, placing one foot in his gut, knocking the wind out of him, as she pulled him down and used the momentum of his fall to roll herself back and throw him out through the window.

CRASSSHHH!

"Don't wake me up after I finally got to sleep, damn it _!_! _!_ " she roared furiously as he slammed into the ground below along with the shattered glass. It was an unquestionable K.O. "… Ah…" she said, pausing for a moment as her anger subsided, and her expression fell with the realization of what she had just done while half asleep. "Maybe I shouldn't have thrown him into the window…" Sanzo was gonna be pissed when he found out if he had to pay for it, not to mention the inconvenience it would cause for their hosts until it was fixed. "Oops."

"Myoko-san _!_?" Hakkai called anxiously as he and Gojyo burst into her room, both wearing extremely concerned expressions on their faces.

"Yo," she said calmly, sitting up in bed to face them.

Gojyo's worry quickly melted into a smirk when he saw what she was wearing: a pale pink cotton camisole and a matching pair of short shorts that showed off her lovely legs and revealed all the curves that were usually hidden by her nun's robes. "Nice outfit."

"I was hot," she explained with a scowl, tossing her pillow at him. "And don't stare."

 _Yeah, you are,_ he thought, catching it before it could hit his face. She was the only woman he knew that could make the combination of violence and the smell of sunscreen seem sexy. "Aren't you a little young to be having hot flashes?" he teased.

"Would you like me to give you a flying lesson, too?" she retorted crisply in response, forming a fist with her hand.

"Haha, I guess you're all right, then…" Hakkai said, taking note of the broken window and lack of intruder.

"Yep," she answered, hopping off the bed and pulling her clothes on over her jammies as quickly as possible. "I'm guessing you guys got visits, too, so after Gojyo wipes the drool off his face…"

"Uwaa!" they heard someone cry from another room.

"Next door!" Myoko said, dashing out into the hall.

"That's Goku's…" Hakkai started to say, following her out with Gojyo, when the door to the next room broke down.

CRASH!

"… room," he finished as they stared down at the unconscious youkai that had just been used to bust the door off its hinges. "Are you okay? Goku!" he called as they all peered into the room.

Goku was still in bed and still more than half asleep. "Why? Are we eating breakfast already…?" he mumbled drowsily.

"Ahh… No… Not really…" Hakkai replied, sweat-dropping.

"That little bastard did this in his sleep? That's bullshit!" Gojyo said in disbelief.

"That's my boy!" Myoko said with a grin. "Get dressed, Goku! We'll have breakfast after we meet up with Sanzo," she added, knowing that combo would jolt him wide awake like nothing else.

—∞—

Drops of Sanzo's blood dripped onto the floor from where the punches of the male youkai currently attacking him broke the skin. The bastard had taken advantage of his inability to move to get a few hits in as payback for the beating he received before.

"That's enough for now," the female spider youkai told her minion.

The male youkai gave the monk one last vindictive punch and shoved him roughly to the floor.

"Ho ho… you have beautiful eyes," the spider youkai said with a smirk as she handed Houmei over to another female youkai, who had come to assist them. She loomed over Sanzo, admiring his piercing violet stare, "such fierce eyes. They're wasted on a human." Her smirked widened. "Hey… I heard a rumor that if you eat the meat of a high priest, your life span will increase," she said, stroking her chin. "But it's only gossip among the youkais. Still, the highest rank in the world, 'Sanzo'… to have such a rank… Maybe it would get me something like eternal youth?" She cupped his chin in her hand, gripping the attractive man by his face as she leaned down and pulled him closer, holding him within kissing distance. "Now that I see you up close, you have such a pretty face. Looks tasty, boy."

"..." Sanzo stared back at her, unimpressed. "Now that I see you up close, I can notice your wrinkles, old hag."

The female youkai's face twisted with hate as she slammed his head against the floor. "That's it!" she screamed with a vein throbbing on her forehead. "I've decided how I'll cook you now! I'll turn you into mincemeat!" she sneered furiously. "I'll tear you up piece by piece, then…!"

 _FSSSSH._

" _!_?" she gasped, pulling back just in time to avoid being sliced by the sharp blade of Gojyo's Shakujou as it flew between her and Sanzo.

"Stop, stop…You don't want to eat that monk," he said as the blade retracted by the chain to its staff, and the monk and youkais looked toward the open doorway to find the half youkai, Goku, and Hakkai standing just inside the room. "Raw or cooked…"

"Boiled or fried, he'll still be more than you can bite off and chew," Hakkai finished with a smile.

"Useless babble," Sanzo said, spitting out some of the blood in his mouth as he stood up, finally cut free from the web, and pulled his robe's sleeves on all the way along with his metal chest plate, ready to get serious. "… I won't thank you." Though he did wonder why Myoko seemed to be dragging her ass getting there.

"I don't want it," Gojyo told him. "Did you 'return the favor'?"

"Of course," Sanzo replied firmly. He was going to show that spider youkai just how much of a bitch payback could be.

Gojyo and Hakkai smirked, while Goku yawned.

"Such easy chatter…" the youkai holding Houmei scoffed. "You can't do shit while we still hold this hostage _!_!" Her eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head as her body crumpled to the floor, and they all saw that Myoko had taken advantage of the guys' more dramatic entrance to sneak up behind her in the darkness and delivered a swift hand chop to the back of the youkai's neck as she retrieved Houmei from her. Myoko didn't necessarily like attacking people from the back, but she often preferred to work smarter rather than harder. And she didn't feel too hot at the moment, so she wanted to get this over with ASAP so she could suffer in peace.

 _There she is,_ Sanzo thought, satisfied with the answer to his silent question.

"You look terrible, Sanzo," Myoko told him with a frown, counting all the cuts on his face. "I hope you added lots of interest."

"That goes without saying," Sanzo answered coolly, though her blunt choice of words kind of annoyed him.

"We've taken back the hostage! The game should be fair now, right?" Hakkai said with the hint of a smirk.

"Kya~! You're so cool, Myoko-sama. You really know how to steal the spotlight, huh?" Gojyo teased.

"You'd get a lot more done if you stopped showing off so much," Myoko deadpanned in response.

"Heh! This girl isn't cute at all," he said with a crooked smile, sweat-dropping.

"Keuk!" the spider youkai's face twisted with anger and irritation, and she placed her fingers in her mouth and blew.

 _PHWEEEEEE!_

Reinforcements arrived on the scene, appearing from the darkness behind her, in response to the shrill whistle.

"Geez, they're coming out of the woodwork like termites," Myoko remarked, sweat-dropping. So that's where the rest of the troupe was…

"Kill them!" the spider youkai ordered, urging her comrades forth to attack.

"Taking a great cook hostage, I can't forgive that!" Goku declared strongly, point his finger at her.

"To him, anything involving food becomes a serious matter," Sanzo said, sweat-dropping.

"Seriously, he's just a normal animal!" Gojyo said, also sweat-dropping.

"Grudges over food are scary," Myoko stated with a straight face.

 _You would know,_ Sanzo thought, recalling the kind of life she had lived before her teacher took her in.

Goku grinned and separated his staff into three sections. Nyoi-sansetsu-bou! Uraaah _!_!" Goku cried, charging forth to attack, taking out four youkais at once.

"Nice. Such a good atmosphere," Gojyo said with a smirk, raising his weapon. "Don't you agree?" he asked his opponents, eliminating them with one swing.

One of the youkais came at Myoko with a lead pipe, swinging it at her head, while another tried to tackle her from the back. In the blink of an eye, Myoko's sword sliced clean through through the pipe in front of her as she delivered a powerful kick to the enemy behind her. It was an instant K.O. for the one she kicked in the jaw, and the one who saw her sword cut straight through metal began to panic.

"You bitch!" he snapped, thrusting was was left of the pipe in his hands at her hand in an attempt to stab the nun and make her drop her dangerous weapon. Myoko squatted down low to duck the attack and popped back up with the force of a demented jack-in-the-box to headbutt him from below. Another K.O. He was completely down for the count this time.

"Now, now," Hakkai said as he stepped forward to intercept the second wave of attackers who came for her. "It isn't nice to attack someone while they have their hands full." She was still holding Houmei, after all. He narrowed his eyes slightly when three more tried to come straight for him, too. "How annoying," he sighed, mumbling a short concentration chant. "Precise death… Lethal Pest Extermination _!_!" he declared, wiping them all out with a powerful blast of his chi. "Shall I take her from you?" he offered with a smile, holding his arms out to take Houmei off Myoko's hands.

"Yeah, thanks," Myoko agreed, knowing it would be a lot easier for the human-turned-youkai to move around and fight with extra weight than it was for her as a plain old normal human, especially right now. Most of her sword techniques required two hands anyway. It was lucky that she had been able to hit a weak spot in that pipe.

"Shit!" the youkais' leader cursed in frustration. "Useless fools _!_!" She was so busy looking at them that she never saw Sanzo's fist coming, and she hit the floor harshly with a loud thud when it collided with her face.

"Thanks for the beating," Sanzo told her sternly, standing over her. "Let me repay you. I charge really high interest!"

"Don't underestimate me, you droopy-eyed boy!" she sneered.

 _"_ _!_?" Sanzo said, startled when all the veins in her arms popped up, and her muscles and bones began to shift under her darkening skin.

CRK. CRRRK. CRK.

"!" Myoko furrowed her brow with concern as she and Hakkai glanced over when they sensed the change in her energy and heard the strange sound of clicking bones and joints.

"It can't be… metamorphosis _?_!" Hakkai exclaimed, taken aback.

"Huh?" Gojyo said as he and Goku turned to look too.

! _!_ they all thought, shocked to find themselves now facing a giant spider that was at least twice as big as their Jeep.

"Uwaak! It must taste horrible!" Goku exclaimed, making Gojyo and Myoko sweat-drop and smile wryly.

"I envy the way your brain must be wired to think that way," the half youkai remarked drolly.

"!" they all gasped as the transformed spider youkai shot a powerful wave of webs at them, instinctively holding their arms up to shield themselves. Myoko had raised her sword in an attempt to cut the strings as they cam at her, but they were too sticky and malleable for that, and she was immediately bound and frozen in place along with the guys when the web wrapped around the blade along with her hands and arms to hold her in place. "Ahck!" they all grimaced in disgust.

"Ara? I can't get loose!" Goku cried in annoyance when he discovered that no amount of struggling could snap the webs or make them stop clinging to him.

Myoko shuddered at the feeling of the unpleasant foreign substance on her skin as she continued her own futile attempts to break free, though she was being held so tightly it was hard to tell she was doing anything at all. "Dammit, this is why I can't stand spiders…!"

Sanzo gritted his teeth as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. This time, he couldn't even move an inch, and for her to be able to trap Goku's ridiculous level of strength… "Her powers have increased because of her transformation!"

Unfortunately for Houmei, it was at that dreadful moment that she began to regain consciousness. "Huh…" she groaned groggily, opening her eyes. "Kyaa!" she cried, surprised, when she realized she was being held by Hakkai and saw the danger they were all in.

"Ahh! Did we wake you up?" Hakkai asked calmly with a smile, despite the bead of nervous sweat sliding down his face. "Sorry you had to get caught in the middle of this."

"Wha…?" Houmei said, confused.

"Please wait a bit," he said kindly, turning his head forward again to direct his attention back to the enemy.

Houmei's eyes widened in shock and fear when she followed his gaze and saw what kind of monster they were facing. "Ek! UWAAH _!_!" she screamed. _What is this…?_! _!_! Why the hell was there a giant-ass spider in her house _?_! _?_ _What's going on? What's happening? Why is this man holding me? Why is everyone fighting?_ Images of her father shielding her as a stranger came at them with a lead pipe appeared in her mind. _Oh… that's right… someone came into the kitchen. They hit father and then…_ She saw a close up of their attacker's face and caught a glimpse of his pointed ears and the disgusting way he licked her father's blood from the pipe. _I remember! It's a youkai…!_! _"_ Noooooooo!" she screamed in horror.

"Aah!" Goku gasped, and Hakkai did his best to shield her, when the spider youkai shot more webs at them.

 _"_ _!_!" Myoko winced as the new web wrapped around her neck was pulled tighter and clenched her jaw, tensing the muscles in her neck in an attempt to keep the pressure from closing her throat.

"It's your fault my plan was ruined!" the spider youkai yelled at the nun. She also thought it was unfair for her to be surrounded by such handsome men.

"Noo! Myoko-san!" Houmei cried in fear for her life. Sanzo's glare hardened, and he gritted his teeth as he and the others increased their futile efforts to break free.

Myoko was choking. Her vision had begun to swim in front of her eyes and fade to black, and she was only another second away from losing consciousness, when a shot pierced the night.

 _BANG!_

The spider youkai shrieked in agony as a bullet pierced one of her eyes, slicing through the webs as it went. Myoko fell to her knees like a puppet that had its strings cut, gasping desperately for air.

"Ah! They broke," Goku said, surprised to find that they were all free. "Eh _?_!" he was even more surprised when he looked in the direction that the shot had come from with the others and saw who was responsible.

"F… Father _!_!" Houmei gasped, equally amazed to see him standing in the open doorway with Sanzo's lost banishing gun still raised in his hand.

"Old man _!_!" Sanzo exclaimed. Judging by the blood dripping down his forehead, he had been given a pretty nasty injury. That was a good shot for someone with a head wound. He must have staggered all the way there.

"Are you all right, Houmei _?_!" the innkeeper asked urgently, panting as he leaned against the doorframe for support.

"Father!" Houmei cried with relief, rushing over to hug him.

Her father smiled and held her tight, relieved to see that she was okay. "Houmei!"

"Hey! Look, it's your gun!" Gojyo said.

"Guess it came in handy," Sanzo said, rubbing his sore wrist and glancing down at Myoko out the corner of his eye.

"Are you okay?" Goku and Hakkai asked her.

She was still huffing a little, and trying to talk made her cough, so Myoko answered them with a thumbs up and leaned against her sword to steady herself while she staggered to her feet again. _First they wake me up, then they try to strangle me… this is turning out to be a really crap night!_ she thought with a small vein throbbing on her forehead.

"I believe this is yours?" the innkeeper said, returning the gun to its rightful owner.

Sanzo gave him a rare half smile. "There's a ten percent finder's fee, you know."

"You… puny humans… _Damn you!"_ the spider youkai snarled furiously at them. One of her minions, who had the misfortune to regain consciousness at that moment, flinched in shock when she reached for him with one of her large legs. His eyes widened in fear, and he tried to scramble away, but his injuries made him too slow.

"Ahhh!" he screamed as she stepped on him.

"Don't look, Houmei!" Sanzo shouted, quickly moving himself in front of her in an attempt to block her line of sight so she wouldn't see what happened next.

"Huh?" Houmei said, confused by his actions. Unfortunately, she soon saw why Sanzo reacted the way he did as she gazed past the monk against his advice and witnessed the gruesome sight of the spider youkai devouring her own man. And it wasn't just that one youkai, the spider ate every one of her remaining allies that still happened to be alive. It was beyond cruel.

Myoko furrowed her brow and frowned in disgust at the cannibalistic act of betrayal. She noticed some kind of smoke or steam seemed to be radiating off the injured eye. _Ah, so that's why…_ The crease in her brow deepened, and she finished straightening up and pulled the tip of her sword loose from the floorboards.

"Gross!" Goku exclaimed. "She's… eating her own teammates!"

"She's consuming their powers to heal the wound!" Hakkai observed grimly with a bead of sweat sliding down his face.

"So, she eats men… She really is a spider woman," Gojyo remarked with a smirk as a bead of sweat slid down the side of his face too. That healing ability could be a problem.

Houmei stood there, staring in horror at the gory scene before her. Her body started to tremble as violent memories that mirrored the present situation flashed before her eyes. Her friend… the blood… that monster… "N…"

 _That girl… was eaten by a youkai…_

" _NOOOOOOO!_! _"_ she screamed in anguish, squeezing her eyes shut and clutching her head in her hands. _"I hate them! I hate them… The youkais… should… They should just die!_? _!"_

Goku froze in shock when he heard those words, too hurt and stunned to notice the leg the healed spider youkai had begun to swing at him.

"!" Myoko gritted her teeth and rushed forward, swinging her blade and sliding between Goku and the incoming threat just in time to slice it in two, so that the bloody stump swiped past them both harmlessly as the severed forelimb hit the ground with a splat beside them and slid across the floor. "Get it together, Goku _!_!" she scolded him while the spider youkai shrieked and writhed in agony, concerned for his safety.

"Thank goodness," Hakkai said as he and Sanzo watched, relieved that she had reached him time. "Even in her current condition, Myoko-san's speed is formidable."

Unfortunately, Gojyo wasn't so lucky. He thought the spider youkai might have let her guard down in her weakened state, but he underestimated her reflexes and the increase in strength caused by her rage, and she lashed back without hesitation when he took a step forward.

 _"_ _!_!" he said, bracing himself as he slid back when one of the spider's remaining limbs whacked him across the face. "… You piece of shit _!_!" he cursed angrily, spitting out the blood in his mouth.

The spider then turned her attention to Houmei and her father. Youkai flesh would have been better, but she needed fresh meat, and the two humans were completely defenseless.

 _"_ _!_!" Houmei's father gasped and held her tight, doing his best to shield her as the youkai closed in on them.

SWISH! THUMP.

Before she could lay a hand on them, the attacking leg was severed. The spider youkai screamed in agony again. She had now lost two legs because these people! "You damn monkey _!_! _!_ " she shrieked at their interfering savior.

"I'm not a monkey, you six-legged freak!" Goku retorted, holding his staff out in front of him in an offensive position.

"Goku-san _!_!" Houmei exclaimed. Myoko smiled, seeing that he had come back to his senses.

"You guys better stop it _!_!" he told the spider youkai. "These people don't have anything to do with you _!_!"

"You, too, Kid? Why do you side with these low-life, defenseless humans?" asked the spider youkai. "You kids are also… youkais like us _!_! _!_ "

Houmei's eyes widened in shock. _What… did she just say? A Youkai? Goku-san and them…? s_ he thought, stunned by why she had just heard as she glanced between him and the others. _Youkais, the enemy that attack and eat us humans?_ _But… It can't be true! He can't be…_

"… Shut up!" Goku said sternly. "It doesn't matter… humans or youkais… those kinds of little things don't matter! The dinner was good… that's all…"

Houmei's expression softened as she stared at his back in surprise. For that reason… He saved them for something so small?

"…" her father stared at the boy, dumbfounded.

"Haha _!_! That's Goku's way of saying it!" Hakkai laughed with a smile.

"It's like an animal's instinct…" Sanzo said.

"That's our Goku!" Myoko said affectionately with a proud smile.

" _You damn traitors!_! _!"_ the spider youkai roared with fury. She lost her legs for that?! _"I'll kill you all!_!"

Sanzo decided it was time to end it. "Goku and Gojyo! Buy some time! Hakkai and Myoko, you take care of Houmei and her father!" he ordered, removing the Maten Sutra from his shoulders. "I'll seal her mobility!"

"'Kay! This way _!_!" Goku said as he and Gojyo immediately sprang into action.

"Over here, spider woman _!_! _!"_ Gojyo called.

"Uh… Won't it go faster if I help them?" Myoko asked, thinking she could just slide under the giant spider's belly and gut it. "I could take her out myself while they have her distracted." She had yet to meet something her sword couldn't cut through.

"Ah, but then Sanzo would lose his chance to show off," Hakkai quipped with a facetious smile.

"I heard that…" Sanzo grumbled, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance as small vein throbbed on his head. Someone who could barely keep herself from wincing every time she moved shouldn't be talking so big. Ignoring them, he put his hands together and began reciting the mantra to focus the power needed to activate the sacred scripture.

"Whoop!" Gojyo said, dodging when the spider youkai tried to hit him again with one of her remaining legs. "Ha! 'Take women, but don't get taken by them,' right? Oh, wait, that's liquor," he said with a smirk.

"W… Who are you all…?" Houmei asked Hakkai and Myoko.

"It's a long story, but there is a reason for the youkais going berserk," Hakkai replied while they kept their eyes on the enemy. "So, please never forget that the differences of our races are nothing to come between us… Please don't carry a discrimination based on species!"

"Holding onto hate is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Don't let the world make you hard, Houmei. It takes guts to be gentle and kind," Myoko added, sparing a glance over her shoulder to give the younger girl an understanding smile. Houmei stared at her in awe, surprised by the strength behind it. She knew in that moment, that this woman had also been hurt before, and that she knew what real courage was.

"Makai Tenjou _!_? _!_ " Sanzo shouted forcefully, unleashing the power of the Maten Sutra on the spider youkai, sending a torrent of unfurled scroll spiraling out to capture her, making the spider cry out in fear and alarm. Just as she had bound them without any chance of escape with her webs, Sanzo now had her trapped in an inescapable prison of sacred scriptures.

"Go! Give her the finishing blow, Goku!" Gojyo cheered.

"Yeah!" Goku agreed enthusiastically with a devious grin. He leaped high into the air to place himself above the giant spider. "Go! Nyoi-bou _!_!" he yelled, ordering the staff to expand as he swung it down at the youkai with all his might. The weapon extended with frightening speed to pierce directly through the top of her head before she could even think of shooting another web at him. The giant spider exploded outward in a wave of energy. Sanzo watched while the others shielded their faces from some of the debris, and Myoko hid her sensitive eyes from the flash of bright light. The spider's corpse disappeared along with her webs, and the room's dimensions returned to normal as her illusion dissolved and the darkness she had imposed upon it lifted. The sun was rising outside.

—∞—

"You guys are going already?" the innkeeper asked when the travelers all piled into their Jeep to head out again as soon as everyone who needed treatment received it and their bags were packed.

"Yes. We can't stay too long!" Hakkai replied.

"Sorry for all the trouble, old man!" Gojyo said.

"Hahaha, it's ok! There wasn't much damage," he laughed with a smile.

"Ah. Again, I'm really sorry about that window…" Myoko apologized a bit sheepishly for at least the third time that morning.

"Oh, no," the innkeeper said kindly. "Better the window than you!"

"May I ask you one thing? After knowing our identity, you weren't agitated at all. Did you know from the beginning…?" Hakkai asked curiously.

"Yeah… Just a little…" he replied with a sad smile, bowing his bandaged head a little. "I knew from the spirit. There was an old friend of mine who was a youkai… He _used_ to be my best friend… 'If it was them, they could do something about this broken world.' That's what I felt! … Am I wrong?"

"Don't assume!" Sanzo said, placing his official headdress on his head again. He looked back at the innkeeper with the hint of a smirk. "I intend to return your 'favor'."

"… Houmei," Goku said when she came outside.

She approached them slowly and held out the wrapped box she was carrying to him. "I made lunch…" she said quietly. "Um… If it's all right, I hope you will all…"

Myoko smiled, glad that she seemed to have come to terms with last night's events for herself.

"Yeah, thanks _!_!" Goku said brightly with a big grin, accepting the parting gift without hesitation.

"Ah!" Houmei gasped when the Jeep's engine purred, and they began to pull away.

"Well, we'll be going now!" he said.

"Please be careful!" the innkeeper called after them.

"Ok!" said Goku.

"Don't worry! We're always careful when we're doing something dangerous!" Myoko added with a cheeky grin and a wave.

As Houmei watched them drive away, Goku's answer to the dreadful spider youkai echoed through her head.

 _Humans or youkais… those kinds of little things don't matter… The dinner was good… That's all!_!

"I… need to apologize to them…" Houmei said, starting to cry as tears formed in her eyes. "I said all of those horrible things… _!_!"

"Houmei…" her father said gently, placing a comforting hand on her head. "You packed your 'thank you' and 'sorry' in the lunch box, right? It's ok! They know it!"

—∞—

"As we thought, they finally sent an assassin directly after us…" Sanzo remarked.

"Gyumaoh's revival, this person called Kougaiji…" Hakkai began.

"Hey, this stewed meat with ginger is really good!" Goku interrupted with a shout from the backseat.

"There is too much that is still a mystery, but it seems the situation is more serious than we thought," Hakkai finished.

"Oh, shut up already, you stupid monkey!" Gojyo told Goku.

"Hey! Leave some for me!" Myoko scolded them.

"Yeah, but before that…" Sanzo said, closing his eyes for a moment with a tired sigh.

"I told you those were my cabbage rolls _!_!" Goku yelled.

"Stop eating all of the meat, brats!" Gojyo snapped at him and Myoko.

"You should stop eating all the tuna onigiri too!" Goku retorted.

"Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey _!_!" Gojyo mocked him.

"Perverted Kappa, pervert, pervert, pervert _!_! _!_ " Goku snapped/shouted back.

"Can't we do anything about the idiots in the back?" the disgruntled monk asked with small vein throbbing on the side of his face.

"My sentiments exactly!" Hakkai said wryly with a brilliant shit-eating grin.

"I'm gonna confiscate it _!_! Give it to me, damn it!" Sanzo snapped, grabbing the rest of the packed lunch from them.

"Wah! My Napoleon!" Goku cried.

"Hey! I had my eye on that!" Myoko said. "You traitor _!_!" she cried when the monk still took a bite. She tried to lean over his shoulder to steal the next bite, but he placed his other hand on her head and pushed her back. He looked her directly in the eye as he continued to eat it, making her cheeks flush bright red with frustration. It was _so_ on now. She was definitely going to make him regret that later!

"What _?_! Stop eating it after you confiscated it, Sanzo _!_!" Goku shouted incredulously.

"Is no one going to comment on that narrowly avoided indirect kiss?" Gojyo asked, trying very hard to not to laugh, even though anyone who knew Myoko well, knew that she just wasn't fussy about sharing germs with people she was close to in general, because she had a super-charged immune system from all the questionable crap she had to eat when she used to live on the streets.

"Dammit! At least give me back the crab salad!" Myoko snapped, making desperate grab for it, leaning so far over his seat that she almost fell in Sanzo's lap when they hit a small bump.

"Watch yourself!" Sanzo scolded her. "Tch! Damn, just take it, then!" he said with a scowl, holding up the small dish for her to grab.

"Yaay~ _!_!" she cheered with sparkles in her eyes.

"Ahh! No fair!" Goku cried.

"Hey, back off! I need the iron!" she said, sticking an arm out to hold him at bay.

"Che! The stinking monk's favoritism is too obvious…" Gojyo muttered under his breath. "Those two are definitely…" He halted mid sentence when he heard an ominous _click_.

"Want to try saying that a little louder?" Sanzo asked lowly in a dangerous tone of voice, aiming his gun at him over his shoulder.

"My, isn't this fried chicken exquisite!" Hakkai remarked pleasantly with a smile.


	4. His God, My God

**Chapter 4: His God, My God**

* * *

"Rock, paper, scissors—go!" the group of five said, each throwing their hands to form a symbol. Goku had 'scissors', but Hakkai, Gojyo, Myoko, and Sanzo all had 'rock'.

"You've got to be kidding me! I've lost ten times in a row!" Goku cried, staring at his defective hand with a look of shocked betrayal.

"Hehe, he still hasn't caught on," Gojyo snickered under his breath.

"His habit of throwing a scissors first is quite damning," Hakkai agreed quietly.

"He is a monkey after all," Sanzo said lowly with the hint of a smirk, while Myoko gave poor Goku a lopsided smile.

She thought he would have at least figured it out by the fifth turn, but it seemed Goku had become too upset to think straight. She briefly considered tell him, but decided it would be better for him to learn how to figure this sort of thing out on his own… Plus, she didn't want to end up getting stuck with the bag either.

"Hey! How far are we gonna walk?" Goku whined, dragging the large, heavy bag along. The others paused and glanced back at him.

"Well, with this kind of rocky terrain, we can't use the Jeep to cross through…" Hakkai reminded him.

Goku frowned and stared hard at the little white dragon, who was riding comfortably on Myoko's shoulder to take advantage of the shade her umbrella offered to escape the desert sun. "Hakuryuu! Can't you change into anything other than a Jeep?!" he demanded, shaking his fists at the startled creature.

"Hey, Goku…" Myoko scolded him with a frown. "Don't take it out on him just because you keep losing."

"Sensei! An animal's abusing another animal!" Gojyo droned drolly.

"Who is this 'sensei'?" Myoko asked with a wry smile, sweat-dropping.

"You, if you want. Being scolded by a pretty teacher like you wouldn't be half bad," he teased with a cheeky smirk.

Myoko laughed. "Pfft! What the heck? Not even in your dreams," she told him, shaking her head in somewhat amused disbelief.

"Yeah, it'd be more like a nightmare!" Goku cut in. "You know how scary Myoko-nee is when she's angry!"

"Are you trying to make me angry…?" she asked, sweat-dropping again. True, she wasn't above ruling by fear in some emergencies, but they didn't have to treat her like some kind of monster. She thought Hakkai was much scarier.

"… With this pace, the sun's going to set before we can cross the mountain…" Sanzo said, doing his best to ignore the idiocy behind him.

"In that case, shall we ask them for a night's lodgings?" Hakkai suggested as they came upon a great edifice built into the mountainside.

"Ge! Such a grand temple!" Gojyo said, sweat-dropping, while Goku stared up at it, amazed to find something like that out there.

"You can find these things in the most surprising places, huh?" Myoko commented wryly.

"Excuse me _!_! _!_ " Hakkai called out as they drew closer.

"Do you need something _?_!" one of two monks called back as they came out on the balcony above to see what they wanted.

"We are travelers! Could kindly you let us stay a night?" Hakkai asked politely.

"Hmph!" the monk huffed, and Myoko could already tell what his answer would be from the amount of scorn mixed with self-importance that it carried. It wasn't her first time encountering a place like this. "Because this is a holy temple… we cannot allow strangers within its walls!"

"What the hell's up with that _?_!" Goku said incredulously.

"Ah, as I thought… it's _that_ kind of place…" Myoko said with a sigh.

"Has something like this happened to you before?" Hakkai asked her.

"From time to time," she replied. "Some people think just being a woman is sinful, even though anyone worth their salt knows Buddha himself had nothing against women and those extra precepts and stories about us being trouble were added in after his death."

"Shit! This is why I hate monks!" Gojyo scoffed disdainfully with a vein throbbing on his forehead, giving the temple and everyone in it the finger.

"Oh, really? That's the first time I've heard about it," Sanzo said coolly, standing right behind him.

"What should we do?" Hakkai hummed, holding his chin while he tried to think of a solution.

"Hey! I'm hungry _!_! _!_ " Goku complained. "Sanzo _!_!"

"Sa… _Sanzo?_! _?"_ the monk who turned them away cried, gripping the railing as he leaned over to get a better look. A bead of nervous sweat formed on his bald brow. "Now that you mention it… That guy's attire is the same as that of the late Priest Koumyou Sanzo… the Tenchi Kaigen Kyoumon lies draped about his shoulders… and… the crimson chakra upon his brow is the mark of one close to the gods… could it be… Priest Genjo Sanzo _?_!" he gasped, reeling back in shock.

"What?!" the other monk with him exclaimed in shock.

" _P… Please forgive us for our rudeness!_! _!"_ they begged anxiously. "We'll let you pass now _!_!"

"Eh?" Goku said, surprised when the giant doors opened as promised to let them in.

"…" Sanzo had a bad feeling about this. He could sense a heavy dose of annoyance in his future.

"… Guess we said the magic word…" Myoko said, sweat-dropping again, taking note of the sign over their heads that denoted the place as the Iwayama Temple as they stepped inside.

Gojyo whistled as they walked through the magnificent interior, its echo bouncing off the high ceilings. And this was just the entrance.

"Hmm…" Hakkai said, also surveying their surroundings as they went. Myoko's eyes wandered naturally in search of any and all possible exits out of habit. She didn't feel comfortable in these closed-off halls with their pretentious atmosphere. It made her feel too caged in.

"Please step inside!" their guide said, opening the door to the next room for them, where they were greeted by two rows of monks lined up to flank the raised platform where the abbot sat with two other highly-ranked monks in front of a large icon of Buddha seated on a lotus. Judging by the size of the room and the altar, they appeared to have entered the main hall.

"Priest Sanzo-sama… how good of you to visit this old temple! You honor us with your presence," the abbot greeted him with a smile.

"I am grateful for your welcome," Sanzo replied calmly.

"Hey! Are you telling me that Sanzo's really that great?" Gojyo asked incredulously with blatant disbelief.

"Actually, it's not so much that, but the power of the title of 'Sanzo'," Hakkai said. "I'm sure Myoko-san can explain it better than I could," he added, passing the buck.

"I guess," Myoko said with a small shrug. "It's said that this world has five holy scriptures called 'Tenchi Kaigen Kyoumon', which are said to have been used in the founding of heaven and earth, and it seems the title of 'Sanzo' is given to the guardians of each of these scriptures. Among Buddhists, they're revered as the highest-ranking monks. It's said that this is proof the owner is the most holiest of monks… usually."

"How'd that godless bastard get to be one of the highest-ranking monks?" Gojyo demanded as he pointed at their Sanzo, chagrined.

"That is beyond my scope," Hakkai said with a small smile, sweat-dropping.

"Even I can't answer that for sure…" Myoko agreed wryly, also sweat-dropping. "That's why I said 'usually'. But I'm sure it's because his predecessor saw something in him." She remembered Koumyou-sensei being a really sharp judge of character, even if he did act a little spacey from time to time. "He was a lot cuter when he was younger."

"Ehh?!" Goku exclaimed as they stared at her in shock over that seemingly impossible statement, making them all quickly clap their hands over his mouth to silence him so Sanzo wouldn't hear them and turn around. None of the guys could ever imagine _that Sanzo_ being anything even remotely resembling 'cute'.

"Ah, that's right. You guys were childhood friends, right? But I'm finding it really hard to imagine a time when that guy wasn't a difficult bastard…" Gojyo admitted, sweat-dropping, while Goku nodded firmly in agreement. _The eyes of a maiden in love are scary…_ the perverted kappa thought.

"Oh, no," Myoko said, quickly correcting him. "He's always been difficult, it's just that he used to be cuter while doing it."

"Ah, now that I can see…" Hakkai said with a smile as they all sweat-dropped again, picturing a midget Sanzo with the usual scowl on his face.

"No… Something still isn't quite right with that image…" Gojyo said a little awkwardly, sweat-dropping yet again.

"But, in all seriousness," Myoko continued with a more solemn expression, "I remember hearing from _my_ sensei that the Maten Sutra requires a guardian with a strong sense of belief in themselves. I believe that's why."

"Ahh… I see…" the other three said with straight faces, nodding in understanding. The only thing their Sanzo-sama believed in was _Sanzo-sama._

"To tell the truth…" the abbot continued with most of the monks still none the wiser to their little side conversation about their revered idol. "Priest Koumyou Sanzo also stopped by to grace this temple with his presence ten or so years ago…"

"…" Sanzo was quiet.

 _Ten or so years ago…?_ Myoko thought with a small frown, glancing at his back with concern. _That would have been not too long before he died in front of…_ Though Sanzo looked calm on the outside, she was sure that simple statement was bound to have stirred up some really cruel memories for him.

"?" Goku said, tilting his head a little when he saw the way she was looking at Sanzo, wondering what was wrong.

"Ah, don't worry about," she said quietly with a small smile when she noticed, hoping he would leave it at that for Sanzo's sake. Even now it was still too difficult for him to talk about it. Something she could fully understand and relate to.

"After Koumyou Sanzo-sama had passed away, I heard that you, his favorite disciple, had inherited his title as 'Genjo Sanzo'…" the abbot continued. "The orderly and majestic appearance of Koumyou-sama is still fresh in my memory. If I may say so, Genjo-sama, you greatly resemble Koumyou-sama."

 _Only in so far as they're both blonde,_ Myoko thought. If they were going by appearances, that is. For any further resemblances, you had to swim across a moat of alligators and scale several high walls topped with barbed wire before you could find the soft, caring side he kept hidden deep, deep, deep down inside himself.

"Anyways… Enough of such things," Sanzo said, choosing to ignore that touchy subject and get straight to the point. "Because it will be too difficult to cross the mountains in one day… I was hoping to borrow a room for a night."

"Of course! We would be happy to!" one of the head monks said quickly, sparring a furtive glance at his odd traveling companions. "It's just that…" he added a little awkwardly.

 _Here it comes…_ Myoko thought, deadpanning.

"Yes?" Hakkai asked.

"This is the inside of the holy temple, and properly speaking, we can't allow outsiders to pass through. Even taking in a nun would be difficult since we don't ordinarily allow any women in here, and there is no separate facility for them." They knew enough to be able to tell she was simply an albino human… but many of them felt her smooth, lily-white skin and sparkling smile were too dangerous. "And from the looks of it, the rest of you do not seem to be converted to the road of Buddhism…"

 _That is such a load of crap_ , Myoko thought with a straight face.

"A monk is okay, but a civilian or even a nun can't enter?! Is this an expensive restaurant or something _!_! Don't you guys have any sense of chivalry _?_!" Gojyo demanded indignantly with an incredulous expression, getting angry on Myoko's behalf, too, since she was now clearly in the same boat as them. What kind of men would turn a lone woman out into the cold? He found himself wishing they had gotten there a week earlier so he would get to see her slaughter them all after hearing them spout that bullshit. "Don't mess with us!"

"Now, now…" Hakkai said calmly, trying to keep things from escalating.

"That's fine with me," Sanzo answered the other monks, completely indifferent. The expression on his face made it fairly obvious that he couldn't care less what happened to the others. Unfortunately for Myoko, he had overheard that 'cute' comment, so she was going to be doing time on his shit-list for a while. Those guys were the last people he wanted her mouthing off to about stuff like that.

"Uwa~, I knew he was gonna say that!" Goku said, while Myoko smiled wryly and sweat-dropped. Yeah, they had both seen that response coming from miles away.

"Oi, I can understand us, but are you really gonna let them kick Myoko to the curb?" Gojyo asked sharply.

"They seem to be extremely devout people," Hakkai whispered, trying to calm him down.

"Don't you mean suspicious?" Gojyo retorted as Myoko stepped forward.

"Oh, but surely someone as insignificant as a lowly nun, like me, couldn't cause much trouble here? I find it hard to believe the monks of such a disciplined and austere temple could ever possibly be tempted by the mere presence of a woman," she said with an excessively polite tone and sickeningly sweet smile, hitting them right in their pride. "After all, Sanzo-sama here doesn't see me as one at all. Also, every revered monk I've ever met knows it is perfectly acceptable for a nun to spend the night in the same room as a monk or a male layman, and vice versa, as long as they aren't alone and have at least one other person present as a chaperone. After all, Buddha himself said that there was nothing wrong with a nun or a woman's body, but with the monks and men who couldn't control their impure thoughts of them. Ah, but if you're afraid your training here has not been adequate enough to withstand such a _minor_ worldly desire, though I suppose it's easy to claim immunity to temptation when you are never exposed to it, perhaps for your sakes I should just…"

"Ah! That… That won't be necessary…" the monks said quickly. "Of course, you are correct in saying that none of us would be tempted! We have trained in this temple, after all. There should be no problem with you staying for one night."

"I see. Thank you very much!" she said with a radiant shit-eating grin, complete with sparkles. She very subtly shot her companions a 'V' for victory behind her back. The more stuck up these groups were, the greater their pride. She knew there was no way they would kick her out if she made it seem like it would be an admission of weakness or lack of virtue on their part.

"S… Scary…" Goku said a little nervously as he, Gojyo, and Hakkai sweat-dropped, while Sanzo was completely unsurprised.

 _She hit them right where it hurts,_ the priest thought. Well, he had a feeling she would do something like that. Ever since she was a child, Myoko had spent so much time traveling, it was only natural that she would have picked up how to deal with certain types.

"She handled them quite nicely, didn't she?" Hakkai remarked, impressed by the wily display of cunning manipulation. If only they could get away with something like that. He was glad Myoko chose to use her powers for good rather than evil. These monks didn't know how lucky they were that they hadn't come here a week ago when she was in the 'Red Zone'.

"Then, these people are… acting as chaperones? Are they your disciples?" the other monk asked Sanzo next.

"No. They're my servants," Sanzo replied bluntly with a straight face.

"Ah… I knew it!" the monk said, while Myoko sweat-dropped as Hakkai immediately grabbed Goku and Gojyo to hold them back when they tried to lunge at Sanzo in anger.

"Who's your servant?! Hey! You're dead meat!" the monkey and kappa fumed angrily.

"Ok, ok! Calm down! Now, what does it matter? There, there, whoa, whoa," Hakkai told them with wry smile over their furious rants about wanting to kill the monk while veins throbbed on their heads.

"You guys do want to stay here, don't you? Does it really matter what they think anyway?" Myoko asked.

"Oh, come on! You'd be totally pissed if it was you! You trying to tell me you wouldn't be mad after that kind of treatment _?_!" Gojyo asked incredulously.

"Of course I would, but pride won't fill your stomach or keep the sky from raining on you in your sleep," she replied seriously wth a perfectly straight face, making Goku and Gojyo stop their rant as beads of sweat ran down the sides of their faces.

"Ahh… That's right, you've been through a lot of hardships, huh? Sorry for acting so spoiled…" Gojyo said a bit tentatively, while Goku finally went quiet.

 _She handled them nicely, too_ , Hakkai thought, glad they had finally calmed down enough to behave themselves.

"So, just swallow your pride for now and wait to pay them back until tomorrow, when we leave," she added quietly with a sly gleam in her eyes, making Goku and Gojyo smirk and Hakkai nearly face-fault.

 _I don't know what she's saying over there, but she had better not be stirring up trouble…_ Sanzo thought sternly with a frown when he sensed her mischievous streak kicking in.

"Well, in this case, for the sake of Sanzo-sama, we will serve these people the best as well!" the monks decided, wanting to get on his good side.

Sanzo sighed. He had a feeling it would turn out like this. Their type were always so eager to suck up.

—∞—

Without further ado, they were served a modest feast, where Goku and Gojyo disgraced themselves with their usual arguing, and were then shown to a room large enough for all of them to stay in together comfortably. The monks had very thoughtfully included a privacy screen for Myoko so she wouldn't be able to tempt anyone else or lead any of them astray, though it made her wonder why they even had one in a temple that was supposed to be full of only men.

"Ah! I finally feel alive again!" Goku sighed as he plopped himself down on one of the beds.

"Mm, the fried tofu was good~ !" Myoko agreed brightly with a smile, flopping onto another.

"It's a good room, isn't it?" Hakkai remarked, letting Hakuryuu choose which of the remaining beds seemed the most comfortable. They had even placed a vase of flowers on the table in that was in the center of the room for them.

"Well, I guess it's all thanks to the great _Sanzo-sama_ ~ !" Gojyo teased glibly.

"I'm going to kill you," Sanzo retorted coldly.

"Please relax! Have you found the room to your liking?" a young boy said pleasantly as he entered the room and set a tray of teacups down on the table for them. "I'm the one who has been given the honor of serving you, called 'Yo'. Pleased to meet you!" he introduced himself politely with a bright, innocent smile.

"Tsk! They could have at least gotten a beautiful woman to serve us," Gojyo said grumpily. His disappointment could not be clearer.

"What an impure thing to… _!_!" Yo said, appalled. "Women are forbidden in this temple! Myoko-san is only an exception because she is a nun!" he scolded the older man strictly before turning to Sanzo with a smile. "Isn't that right, Sanzo-sama _!_?"

"… Why are you asking me?" Sanzo asked, sweat-dropping. Why did he have to try to drag him into this? Besides, Myoko's inclusion in the group should make it pretty obvious he didn't give a damn about that gender-related crap.

"I never thought I would ever meet you in person, Sanzo-sama! _I'm so happy!"_ Yo gushed excitedly with starry eyes. "Sanzo-sama is an honorable holy man who was chosen by the gods. You are an absolute presence to those of us of the Buddhist faith _!_!"

"Is that so?" Sanzo said boredly, cleaning his ear with his little finger.

"Ha! Honorable? Holy man?" Goku snickered, covering his mouth to keep from laughing.

"Well then, please get comfortable! If you have any problems, just send for me!" Yo said cheerfully, excusing himself from the room.

Gojyo and Goku couldn't believe it. They busted their guts laughing. "I wish he could see Sanzo with his gun blazing!" they said with crooked smiles.

"Pfft! That poor kid has no idea…" Myoko said, shaking with silent laughter. Sanzo was amazing, but not quite in the way they were all thinking!

"This is truly…" Hakkai remarked with a facetious grin.

"Ignorance is bliss!" they all finished together with straight faces before bursting into laughter again.

Sanzo just ignored them and put on his glasses to read the newspaper.

"Oh, well," Gojyo said, starting to calm down. "I guess I'll just have to make do with having Myoko serve me tea," he said with a smirk.

"How many books is that worth to you?" she asked.

"Uh… five… maybe ten?" he suggested, upping the ante when she didn't budge right away.

"Well, then…" Myoko started to agree, sitting up.

"There's no room," Sanzo interjected bluntly. "Limit it to one."

"… I guess I'm out," she amended laying back down to pick up where she left off in her current read, deciding one book alone wasn't worth the hassle.

"Che! You totally did that on purpose!" Gojyo said, annoyed at his interference. "Stinking monk…" Why couldn't he just do them all a favor and admit he was jealous and get laid already? That uptight hard-ass could use some loosening up.

—∞—

"What a faithful coincidence!" the abbot said with his hands pressed together in prayer. "Two generations of Priest Sanzo-samas have come visited us! This must be the Buddha's will! What a thankful thing!"

—∞—

Meanwhile, that most holy monk was engaged in the vices of drinking, smoking, and gambling with three youkais, while Myoko sat aside sipping a beer and reading a book while she waited for her turn to replace the first person to lose five rounds in a row, pretending she wasn't counting and keeping track of tiles so she would know who had what when she entered the game.

"Aw, shoot! I'm starting to get hungry again!" Goku complained. "It's because the food here's all beans and vegetables!"

"It can't be helped. It's vegetarian cooking," Hakkai reminded him, selecting another tile.

"Unlike Keiun, this remote place isn't likely to get many edible donations, so they only have what they can safely provide for themselves," Myoko added. Normal monks and nuns tried to actively avoid killing other sentient lifeforms.

"We're all gonna start stinking of incense pretty soon!" Gojyo complained. "Riichi!" he called after adding another tile to his set to declare a ready hand.

"You'll just have to tolerate it until tomorrow," Sanzo said, turning over his tiles to reveal a winning hand. "Ron!"

BAMM!

"What in the world do you people think you're doing _!_? _!_ " Yo demanded incredulously when he threw open the door and caught them redhanded.

"Mahjong!" they replied without remorse. Poor Yo nearly face-faulted.

"Damn it!" Gojyo cursed, turning his attention back to the game.

"So you were waiting for the 'five of wan' tile after all," Hakkai remarked.

 _Thought as much_ , Myoko mused, turning to the next page in her book.

"Ah! You can't smoke a cigarette, Sanzo-sama!" Yo cried when he noticed the offending item in the revered monk's mouth.

"What?" said Sanzo, so used to the habit that he had almost forgotten it was there.

"Come on and drink some!" Gojyo encouraged the boy.

"Ahhh! He's brought a can of beer!" Yo cried again as an empty one hit the half youkai's head lightly with a hollow clunk.

"Hey! Who threw that?" Gojyo asked, annoyed, holding his head even thought it didn't really hurt.

"Don't give alcohol to an underaged kid! You know the younger they start, the more likely they are to become alcoholics, right?" Myoko scolded him with her hand still extended from throwing her own beer can after she drained it. She and Sanzo didn't let Goku drink either for the same reason.

"Gaahh! Not you, too!" Yo yelled at her. "Why in Buddha's name is a nun drinking beer _?_!"

"Well, nuns get thirsty too, you know," she replied calmly. It's not like she was drinking to get drunk.

"I'll confiscate it _!_!" Yo shouted indignantly as he grabbed their bag, feeling it was his duty to remove all temptations from Sanzo's immediate vicinity. He was completely unprepared for what fell out of it—more beers, books, and Gojyo's skin 'adult entertainment'. The poor kid blushed so hard it made him dizzy.

—∞—

After reinforcements were called in, the wall was plastered with written signs prohibiting virtually all of their group of five's usual behavior and activities, and every trace of vice and evidence of sin was confiscated and removed from the room, which was to say they took away everything fun. Including Myoko's book, which was only a short novel about a time traveling ninja who got caught up in the paradox of causing his own death.

"Tch!" Gojyo and Myoko clicked their tongues in annoyance.

 _Just when the story was getting good…_ she thought grudgingly. She really wanted to know what happened to the poor dog that got strapped to the rocket.

"… You people!" the more senior monk in charge muttered with a vein pulsing on his angry forehead. "Why does a person such as Sanzo-sama travel with such a disreputable woman and lowlife scum like…"

BAM.

"Ugh…!" the monk flinched when Sanzo slammed his hand against the wall next to his head.

"My throat is dry… I'm thirsty!" he said sternly with a tone and a look that were not to be argued with.

"I'll bring some tea right now!" the other monk said nervously, immediately dashing off to do as he was told, trying to shake the unnerving feeling that his life may have been in danger.

Sanzo clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"What? What's the matter?" Goku asked Gojyo, wondering what had brought that reaction on.

"Who knows…" Gojyo said, reading the newspaper.

 _It's most likely because they keep bringing up touchy subjects he doesn't want to talk about, and he hates having to justify himself…_ Myoko thought. Sanzo was so stubborn he would probably rather bite his own tongue off than admit they were all friends. "I call dibs on the paper next."

"… By the way, hasn't this temple ever suffered at the hands of youkais?" Hakkai asked Yo.

"No, of course not!" Yo answered happily. "It is said that by the Lord Buddha's protection, this temple is warded from such worldly things. I guess it's due to our strong faith! Our deep devotion has been communicated to the Lord Buddha."

"What are you gonna do if they attack, monk lackey?" Gojyo asked.

"If such a thing should happen, the Merciful Goddess will surely protect us," Yo said determinedly with a frown and absolute zero doubt.

 _These guys sure are dependent. Heaven's farther away than they think, and I'm pretty sure the gods have better things to do than worrying about some random temple in the middle of nowhere…_ Myoko thought, sweat-dropping.

"Then you don't have any weapons here at all?" Goku asked, concerned.

"Of course not, killing goes against the way of the Buddha," Yo replied, as if that much should be obvious before turning and leaving with their empty cups.

 _Geez, that's like thinking the bull won't chase them just because they don't eat cows…_ Myoko thought with a frown, concerned.

"Tsk. Talk about naive. What joyful, simple minded people," Gojyo remarked cynically. These monks were sitting ducks. They might as well lay themselves out on a silver platter for the youkais.

"In which case… there is all the more reason for us to make our stay short," Hakkai said.

"Yeah, let's hope their luck holds," Myoko agreed grimly.

—∞—

"Beef… Pork… Chicken… Fish…" Goku mumbled.

"Women… Liquor… Smokes…" Gojyo groaned.

"It's a pack of unholy desires, isn't it?" Hakkai said with a wry smile.

"A mantra of worldly temptations…" Myoko agreed, sweat-dropping. Goku was starting to make her hungry, too.

"… Hey, where's Sanzo?" Goku asked, realizing he had disappeared somewhere.

"The abbot called for him, so he left," Hakkai answered.

"This late?" Goku asked, surprised.

Myoko could hazard a guess as to what it might be about. "I have a feeling some people are about to be very disappointed when they discover they aren't the center of the universe," she predicted knowingly.

"Pii—Pii—!" Hakuryuu cried in warning, suddenly on alert.

Myoko frowned and furrowed her brow when the malice hit her next. "He's right! Something's coming." Gojyo frowned and furrowed his brow, too.

"Whoa!" Goku exclaimed when they heard an explosion and sensed a spike in negative energy. "What is it _?_!" he asked, rushing over to the window to look out with Hakkai.

 _This youkai energy is…_ Hakkai and Myoko thought grimly, quickly assessing the danger. This wasn't the usual small-fry.

"What's with this youki?" Gojyo said with a frown.

"No way! Another assassin?" Goku asked.

"Unfortunately… it seems to be that way!" Hakkai replied.

—∞—

The youkai assassin, a tall burly guy armed with an axe, stepped forward to stand poised at the huge hole he had just blown through the wall of the temple's meditation hall. "Hehe! You're here aren't you, Genjo Sanzo!" he called with a smirk. "By Kougaiji-sama's orders, I've come to take your life _!_! _!"_

"Youkai?! It's a youkai _!_!" the frightened monks cried, reeling back in fear and alarm.

"Ahhhh!"

"Ruuun!"

Yo stared in shock while his seniors panicked, too stunned to move. How could there be a youkai in this temple?! Why was he there?

"Ooh… There's a lot of delicious looking monks here!" the youkai said, licking his lips.

"Hy…Gyaahhhhh!" one of the monks screamed as he tried to flee, when a clawed hand grasped his head and crushed it with one squeeze.

Yo fell back against the wall as his legs gave out, too terrified to run. He watched, eyes wide with horror, as the youkai continued to slaughter the others right in front of him. _Please help… Bosatsu-sama…_ he prayed desperately. _Anyone…_

—∞—

"—And… What is it you wanted to talk about?" Sanzo asked the abbot as he stood before the old man and his two helpers with a hand on his hip in another part of the temple.

"The truth is, Sanzo-sama… we wish to ask you to prolong your stay here at our temple," the abbot said.

"My journey is urgent," Sanzo stated firmly, starting to get annoyed.

"One month! No, even for just one week! Sanzo-sama, your visit to our temple was the Lord Buddha's will. There is surely no mistaking that!" the monk who confiscated their belongings earlier tried to bargain.

"We would all very much like you to favor us with your preaching," the abbot's other stooge added.

Sanzo smirked. So, that's what these fools wanted had to say. How stupid. "You guys… I bet you people asked Koumyou Sanzo the same thing, didn't you?"

"Yes… Well, we did, though he very respectfully declined," the abbot admitted a bit awkwardly.

Sanzo sighed. He thought as much. "That master of mine sure was a lenient man," he said, turning to leave.

"Sa… Sanzo-sama _?_!" they exclaimed, confused and upset by the obvious refusal to do as they asked.

Sanzo stopped and turned to look back at them. "Do you want me to tell you… what Priest Koumyou Sanzo wouldn't say to you?" He finished turning to face them fully and crossed his arms as he gave them a hard stare of disapproval. "Quit acting like spoiled brats, you old farts _?_! _?_ " he scolded them with disdain.

"Wha… What did you… _?_!" the abbot said incredulously, completely taken aback.

"That's going too far, Sanzo-sama!" his subordinate shouted indignantly.

"You're too loud," Sanzo muttered, cleaning his ear with his little finger, too fed up to really give a damn about what these bald idiots thought.

 _BANN_.

"Trouble _!_!" another monk yelled anxiously as he rushed into the room.

"What's wrong, being so loud _!_! Don't forget to always be calm!" the abbot scolded him.

"That's not the problem!" the monk cried. "A youkai has snuck in _!_!"

"What _?_!" the head abbot gasped in shock and alarm, while Sanzo furrowed his brow, equally troubled by the disturbing news. He knew it was too much to be a mere coincidence. To think they would even send an assassin to a place like this…

" _He's been screaming 'bring out Sanzo'… all while killing those within the temple one after another!_! _!"_ the frightened monk continued, so panicked and frightened that he was on the verge of tears.

—∞—

In the Upper World, Kanzeon Bosatsu was reading Heaven's newspaper when Jiroushin posed a question that had been bothering him for some time. "Bosatsu-sama! Why did you send those five along an earthbound path? Going to India would have been much quicker by a path through the Heavens."

" _If_ all they needed was to get to India, yes," she replied while keeping her eyes on the paper as she turned to the next page. "Currently, they are extremely lacking in both the ability and solidarity that will be necessary in order to accomplish our true goal. If you think of it as a trial to hone those aspects, a somewhat difficult journey should be good for them!"

"So you were thinking that much!" Jiroushin said, sighing with relief.

"Ju—st kidding!" she said. "It's because it's more fun this way, of course!" she admitted looking up at him with a sly smirk on her face.

Jiroushin immediately felt huge load of stress hit him along with a familiar sense of doom. "Ka… Kanzeon Bosatsu…" he said, sweat-dropping. She really knew how to make him worry for the future.

—∞—

The face of the giant statue of Buddha in the meditation hall was cracked and broken. The blood of many monks smeared the floors and splattered the walls.

"Hyahaha!" the youkai assassin laughed obnoxiously. "Hey! Come out, Priest Sanzo _!_! Traitors!" he called to party of five that he had been sent to hunt, while poor Yo cowered in the shadows, praying he wouldn't be noticed. "If you don't hurry up, I'm gonna finish eating _all_ the monks here!"

It was a challenge they were more than happy to answer.

"You rang?" Myoko asked with her hand on her umbrella's handle, standing on one of the knees of the broken Buddha statue, while Hakkai stood on the other, and Goku sat on the head of the smaller holy statue next to it.

"Tsk, how boring! We only get one filthy bastard this time?" Gojyo said from his perch on what was left of the large Buddha's head, disappointed. "I was looking forward to more beauties like last time!"

"!" Yo gasped, surprised and relieved to see them.

"Hmph, so you guys are the four youkai traitors? You've got some guts to come out here instead of running!" the assassin said with a smirk. He was going to enjoy killing them.

" _Three_. There are only _three_ youkais here!" Myoko said sternly, frowning in annoyance. "I'm a human, dumbass."

"Heh! Doesn't matter!" he scoffed. "By the order of Kougaiji-sama, I'll finish you all off _!_! Hey! Come at me all together! You won't stand a chance against me _!_!"

"Hey, what do you think?" Gojyo asked the others.

"His intelligence stats are low, and his information is faulty. Minus 30 points!" Myoko replied strictly.

"His attitude's too big! He irritates me!" Goku said. "Minus 20 points!"

"His laughter is vulgar. Minus 15 points!" Hakkai added.

The youkai's cocky grin froze on his face as he stared at them in astonishment, dumbfounded by their odd response. "Wha… Are you guys making fun of me _?_!" he demanded furiously, glowering at them with a vein throbbing on his head as he sweat-dropped, feeling chagrined.

"Oh!" Goku gasped, pointing at him. "His teeth are yellow! Minus 5 points!"

"That lame fashion sense deserves another minus 5," Myoko added, referring to his odd choice to wear a shirt with only one sleeve. She wondered if it was for a practical reason or if he really did just have bad taste.

"Sh… Shut the hell up _!_! I'll butcher you!" the youkai roared ferociously with multiple veins pulsing on his head, snapping under their verbal abuse, and hurled his axe through the air.

"!" Gojyo said when it embedded itself in the wall a few inches away from his head. Even his aim was off. "Though he gets full marks for having guts," he decided with a smirk. The half youkai jumped down and charged straight toward the enemy, grabbing the youkai's head as he sprang forward to knee him in the face before he had the chance to react.

"Gyaaah!" the youkai screamed in pain, pulling away with blood gushing from his broken nose. "!" he gasped, eyes widening in alarm as Goku came flying at him next.

Goku hit him square in the jaw with a powerful kick. "Hya!"

 _I… I can't see them at all… These bastards are fast!_ the assassin thought anxiously, starting to panic as he was sent flying back into the rubble he had created with his dramatic entrance.

"Aww, you're weak after all!" Goku complained, completely disappointed.

"Surely, you didn't declare all of those things with these kinds of powers, did you? Don't tell me this is all you have to back up your big talk," Hakkai asked with a brilliant shit-eating grin that made Gojyo's skin crawl. "You have a nice personality, don't you?"

Myoko sighed. _There isn't anything left for me to do here._

 _These guys aren't normal…!_! the enemy youkai cried internally. "Shit!" he cursed, quickly swiping some rocks from the rubble behind him to fling at them like a small meteor shower.

"Wah! That's cheap!" Goku exclaimed, sweat-dropping.

Myoko gripped her sword, ready to spring forward and cut them into harmless bits, when Hakkai placed himself protectively in front of the whole group.

"Please stay back for a second," he said, thrusting his hand out in front of him as he muttered a quick concentration chant to focus his chi. A great spherical barrier formed between their group and the rocks, which obliterated the dangerous projectiles the moment they came into contact with it.

 _Wha… a barrier?_! the assassin thought, startled.

 _Seriously, what am I even doing here?_ Myoko wondered, sweat-dropping, a little chagrined. They didn't need her at all. She wasn't a big fan of unnecessary violence, but she disliked feeling so uselessly redundant even more.

"I came up with the idea when we fought that spider woman the other day," Hakkai said with a smile, holding a hand to his head in a mock salute. "I thought maybe I could make a barrier by materializing and hardening my chi!"

Their enemy was stunned. _… He turned that huge amount of chi into a barrier in an instant…!_

"That's _cool_ Hakkai! I wanna try it, too!" Goku cheered excitedly.

"Um… Well, without the ability to concentrate, it's a little…" Hakkai replied with a wry smile, sweat-dropping as he rubbed the back of his neck. Goku probably had enough energy for it, but his attention span was a little too short… "Ah, but Myoko-san might be able to…" She sometimes channeled her chi into her attacks when she fought barehanded, though she never seemed to use it quite to the same extent he did.

"Maybe, in theory, but as I'm still just a normal human… performing a flashy attack like that would probably leave me totally drained after," she replied with a shrug. Hakkai's chi was so massive that it barely made a difference to him, but a normal human would collapse from exhaustion, if not something worse, if they tried expending that much chi all at once.

 _And plus those two… have still got their youkai power limiters on to maintain their human forms…! What the hell would happen if they took those limiters off?_! the youkai assassin wondered, dreading the answer. "In that case, the first strike wins!" he said, quickly jumping to his feet again, deciding he'd better pull out his trump card before they could finish him. "I'll show you my true powers _!_! _!"_ he raised his bare arm and concentrated to form a blade-like protrusion on its forearm.

"Oh! That's why he didn't have the right sleeve!" Hakkai said.

"I see, so it was functional, after all," Myoko remarked calmly.

"I was thinking it looked pretty dorky!" Gojyo said.

"Shut up! No one gets away with making fun of my fashion sense!" the enemy youkai shouted furiously.

Goku smirked. Things were finally starting to get a little interesting. He raised his hand and summoned his own weapon. "Nyoi-bou!"

SWISH. WOOSH. CLANG!

Before Goku could attack, the assassin struck first.

Goku gritted his teeth at the force behind the enemy's blow as he blocked the strange blade. " _!_!" he gasped, sliding back in a hurry when the blade began to slice through his staff. "Wow! What unbelievable stupid strength _!_!" he shouted in astonishment.

Gojyo sweat-dropped and grinned ruefully. "It'll be the end if you're the one to say that!"

The assassin laughed. "I'll dispose of you all— _!_? _!_ " he gasped as his gloating was cut short when Myoko suddenly appeared before him with incredible speed, ducking past his blade as she close the gap between them in an instant, and drove her own into his flesh to slice the dangerous weaponized arm clean off just above the elbow. "Gyaaaaahh _!_! You b— _!_? _!_ " he screamed as he fell to his knees, quickly staggering back to his feet as he reached desperately for her head to crush it. He flinched, startled when another figure appeared from the opposite side and grabbed his wrist before he could touch a hair on Myoko's head. "What the… _?_!" the youkai said, paling as he recognized the newcomer.

Sanzo smirked deviously and wasted no time in punching his lights out.

"Gya!" the youkai grunted in pain as he crashed to the floor.

"Your fall's clumsy… Minus 40 points!" Sanzo told him sternly while Myoko straightened up and flicked the blood from her blade.

"Sanzo _!_!" Goku said, happy to see him.

"The sum is minus 115 points in total!" Hakkai announced with a smile. "My, it seems you're already in the red, huh?"

"Ha! Why do you always have to take the good part to yourself _?_!" Gojyo asked the monk, leaning on his shoulder. "I could have finished him off easily by myself."

"So it seems," Sanzo remarked with a small frown of annoyance, shrugging him off.

"Excuse you, but who was it that just literally 'disarmed' him?" Myoko questioned with a straight face, raising an eyebrow. She would have had him pinned to the floor herself with her next move if Sanzo hadn't appeared when he did.

"Yeah! That was really cool, too, Myoko-nee! He almost broke my Nyoi-bou, but you sliced right through him _!_!"

"Look _that_ way!" Sanzo scolded them, reminding them that enemy wasn't actually dead yet. Sanzo took a step forward and placed his foot under the assassin's chin to force his head up to look at them while he questioned him. "If he's sending assassins of your caliber after us, this Kougaiji-sama of yours must not think much of us. What is the purpose of the experiments to revive Gymaoh? What's behind all this?"

"… Heh," the youkai smirked. "You stink of blood… how many people's blood have you been splattered with? It's disappointing to hear such a person is a 'Sanzo'…"

"Minus 85 points… Game over!" Sanzo sneered at him in return, ready to finish him off.

"Idiot! You don't have to tell me to kill myself… the one whose game is over is you!" the assassin said with a dark smirk.

" _!_!" Myoko furrowed her brow when she sensed a sharp spike in his killing intent.

"Please dodge, Sanzo, Myoko _!_! _!_ " Hakkai shouted urgently, also sensing the danger.

" _!_!" Sanzo said, instinctively raising an arm to shield his face as the youkai's body began to glow and give off a strange energy. Myoko quickly yanked the rest of her umbrella from the holster on her back and slid it open, holding it out in front of her, as she slid in front of Sanzo just in time to block the massive burst of energy that came blasting toward them.

BOOM _!_!

" _What?_ Did he actually self-explode _?_!" Goku asked, startled.

"… For real?" Gojyo said, disturbed.

"Are you all right, Sanzo _?_! _?_! Myoko-nee _?_! _?_ " Goku asked anxiously, hurrying over to them.

"Yep! We're totally fine," Myoko reassured him with a smile. "Good thing I patched the holes in my umbrella with some protective talismans." Thanks to that, it was able to act as shield when they activated to create a barrier against the evil youkai energy.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal," Sanzo agreed. "Though I'm pretty sure I would have been fine even without your interference."

"You're welcome, by the way," she told him tight smile and small vein throbbing on her temple. She had been seriously worried, there.

"Heh. Typical!" Gojyo scoffed. "As usual he sucks at showing his gratitude."

"I'm glad you're all right," Hakkai told her with a smile.

 _He took death before giving us information…_ Sanzo thought, staring at what was left of the assassin's remains scattered around the room, too busy thinking to worry about what the others might be saying about him. _Even a low level youkai carries this much trust in that guy… Who is Kougaiji?_

"Still, for him to commit suicide rather than rat out his employer… looks like this Kougaiji is someone with a lot of respect to inspire such loyalty…" Myoko mused out loud, echoing the monk's thoughts.

"Unlike a certain someone…" Gojyo added, earning himself a sharp look from Sanzo since he knew exactly who he was talking about.

"So there you are! Are you hurt?" Hakkai asked Yo, taking the time check on him now that the danger had passed.

"…" Yo stared at them with wide eyes. "You all… what kind of people are you _?_!"

The group of five stared back at him.

"It said you've been splattered by the blood of many… Have you killed in this way time and again?!" Yo yelled incredulously as he stared up at them with an accusing look, appalled.

"… _!_! Hey! We can't help it! If we don't kill them, they'll kill us!" Goku retorted defensively.

"We don't think that it's a good thing either, but…" Hakkai said carefully, standing up.

"Of course it's not good!" Yo snapped. "It doesn't matter who it is! To take away a life is an act of blasphemy defying the gods!"

"Hey," Sanzo said sternly. "Are you saying that for real? After so many of your fellow monks were killed, you can still say that?" he asked, looking at him. "If you wanna become that close to the gods, then just _die_ instead!"

"Ah…" Yo gasped.

"Anyone can become closer to the Buddha if they die… like those monks over there."

"Dying is easy, it's living that's hard. Otherwise, everyone would attain Nirvana," Myoko added while Gojyo took out a hidden cigarette to smoke. "In this mixed up world, deciding what's right and wrong isn't easy. Everyone is fighting their own battle. What's 'right' for you may not be what's 'right' for someone else. You have to live by your own rules."

 _But…_ Yo thought, feeling a heavy sense of defeat.

"It may be a disappointment, but…" Gojyo said as the sun began to rise, illuminating all five of them in a golden light. "It just so happens we're still alive."

"Well, this world may harsh… but it's also very beautiful, don't you think?" Myoko asked, her expression softening with a kind smile as her white hair glowed while she watched the new dawn grow on the horizon.

Yo stared at them in awe as the terror of the night seemed to fade in the strength of their presence.

—∞—

"… If you go to the northwest, you can come out to the level land by sunset! If it is by Jeep, the town shouldn't be that far away!" one of the abbot's subordinates advised them.

"We're sorry for all of the mess," Hakkai apologized politely.

"No! No! That's absurd!" the monks said.

"This incident showed us how loose our security is!" the abbot said. "We won't let the souls of the dead monks go to waste!"

Myoko smiled wryly and sweat-dropped at the look of complete indifference on Sanzo's face. She was pretty sure he wasn't even listening.

"We're very sorry for our disrespect!" the monk who has tried to confiscate their things said nervously, bowing deeply in apology.

"Ah! Please don't worry about it!" Hakkai said with a smile. "These people need to live a cleansing life sometimes."

"You think we're dirty…" Sanzo said with a small vein throbbing on the side of his face, sweat-dropping.

Myoko laughed wryly with a skewed smile. _No comment…_

"Yo?" the abbot said, surprised when the young boy stepped forward.

"Sanzo-sama, when everything is over, won't you come visit our temple again?" Yo asked. "When that time comes… please teach me how to play mahjong… Myoko-san, too!" he added with a shy smile.

Sanzo gave the kid a small smile. "I'll remember to do that."

"It's a date!" Myoko agreed with a sunny smile, making the little monk blush.

"Oh! That's not a good idea! Sanzo and Gojyo play it dirty, and Myoko's ability to count tiles is scary _!_!" Goku said with a grin.

"Hey, watch what you say _!_!" Gojyo told him with a vein pulsing on his head, chagrined.

"Counting tiles isn't exactly cheating, you know…" Myoko added. It's not like she was keeping them up her sleeve.

"Though your accuracy when doing so is kind of scary," Hakkai agreed with a brilliant shit-eating grin.

"You're the last person I want to hear that from," Myoko retorted, sweat-dropping. "Your never-ending luck is what's scary, you unnatural high-roller!"

"Yeah! And I don't want it to be said by a monkey who can't even remember his part!" Gojyo told Goku.

"I'm saying the truth, you bogus kappa!" Goku retorted.

"Will you guys shut up!?" Sanzo snapped impatiently with a vein throbbing on his forehead, already getting fed up with them.

—∞—

Hakkai and Myoko looked back and gave Yo a smile and a wave as they left.

 _Sanzo-sama… Myoko-san… Thank you…_ Yo thought as he watched them leave.

"Heh, you're such a sinful woman~ " Gojyo told her as they walked away.

"What are you talking about?" she asked with a confused frown.

"Huh? Don't play dumb," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "You saw the way that mini monk was looking at you, right? And then you went and made a date with him…"

"You realize that's just an expression, right?" she responded with a look that suggested she was questioning his intelligence, which really pissed him off. "And he was just nervous talking to us after how he reacted before, right Sanzo?"

"Why do people keep dragging me into their shit?" he grumbled with a sigh. "Though you do need to be more careful with how you talk to people…"

"Hmm?" she said, tilting her head innocently.

"Haha, see? Even Sanzo agrees with me!" Gojyo said with a smirk.

"On second thought, you're fine as you are," Sanzo amended quickly with a perfectly straight face.

"What _?_!" Gojyo said incredulously, taken aback.

"Haha… I guess Sanzo's dislike for agreeing with you is greater than his disapproval of Myoko-san's behavior!" Hakkai laughed.

"Che! Stinking monk _!_!" Gojyo cursed, feeling disgruntled.

"Seriously, what are you people even talking about?" Myoko asked, sweat-dropping. They didn't seriously think she would ever flirt with a kid, did they? "You're really starting to piss me off."

"Hey, hey! Nevermind that. Is anyone else hungry yet?" Goku asked.

—∞—

Meanwhile, in India, at Houtou Castle…

"… The combination of science and youkai magic creates hyperscience. I don't care what kind of effect this experiment would have on this world… as long as the one I love, my Gyumaoh, revives, it'll be ok!" a pale female youkai with turquoise hair said, gazing up at the body of a giant youkai that was connected and hooked up to various machines. "What do you think? Isn't it a small desire?" she asked Kougaiji, turning to face him, looking down at him from above. "But if some people get in my way… I won't forgive them even if they're gods… Understand? Kougaiji?"

"…" Kougaiji furrowed his brow slightly and tried not to betray too much emotion as he stared up at her.

"Oh, yeah! Those five people, Sanzo's group—they're annoying! Hurry up and destroy them _!_!" she ordered rather high-handedly.

"… I understand, your beautiful highness," Kougaiji answered as he turned away from her and left, swallowing the words he really wanted to say.

"Oh! You can call me _'Mother'_ if you want to!" she called after him a lofty laugh. "Hehe. You are this man's son… after all~"

 _That Hussy!_! Kougaiji thought angrily, gritting his teeth as he punched the wall. _Acting like a legal wife!_ "Shit!" he cursed, glaring at the hole he made.

"… Kougaiji-sama."

"Oh, it's you guys," he said when he looked up and saw Yaone, Dokugakuji, Baiyu, and Lirin approaching him.

"Are you planning to fight Sanzo's group very soon?" Yaone asked.

"Yeah, but it's not for that bitch! It's all for Mother," he said, gazing up at the stone pillar she was sealed in. _Someday I'll free mother from that repugnant curse… For her sake I'll…_

"Kougaiji-sama… I, Yaone will accompany you too," the tall, female youkai with purple hair pledged seriously.

"I'll go too!" Dokugakuji said with a playful grin, leaning with his arm on the prince's head. "Since I am your 'guardian'."

"You know I'm up for anything!" the skinny albino youkai with pale blue eyes declared with another grin, holding up a three-pronged spear for emphasis. "True love conquers all~ " the eccentric youkai added, hugging his arm with with her freehand, making him sweat-drop.

"Lirin will go too—cuz I'm stronger than you~!" his cheeky little sister added brightly, hugging his other arm affectionately.

Kougaiji sighed. "Do as you like." He looked up, feeling more focused with their support. "Let's go! I, Kougaiji, will terminate the Sanzo's group."


End file.
